Monster House: The Fourth Friend
by judygumm
Summary: Sally McGiverns has been close friends with Chowder and DJ since they were very young. On the night before Halloween, the house across from the street comes to life and starts to eat everything that comes near it. Without the cops, or any adults to believe them, it's up to them, and their new friend Jenny to defeat the Monster House before it devours any trick-or-treaters.
1. October 30

My name is Sally Louise McGiverns, I'm eleven years old and will be turning twelve soon. I was born in Mayville, Wisconsin; and I lived a happy life with my family. Sadly things were starting to fall apart this year. My parents were getting into more arguments every night, and I hardly got any sleep from all the shouting. That was the moment I knew that they were splitting apart. Before I couldn't take it anymore, my mom and dad decided to send me to live with my grandparents until things have settled down with the divorce.

Even though I was glad to be away from the fighting, and get some peace and quiet for once, however, I was still very depressed. Almost every day since May, I would sit by my bedroom window and stare at the view of the neighborhood to watch the beauty of spring moving to autumn with the red and orange leaves falling from the thin black trees. At school, I was very lonely and picked on because I wear glasses and students call me "four eyes," but there were two boys that stood up for me and were my only friends. Their names were DJ and Charles, also known as Chowder, they were outcasts too, and they were similar to me. After school and on the weekends, we would hang out together at their houses or mine.

On this day on October 30, just the day before Halloween, I was in my room again looking out of the window as the blues got into my mind. I snapped out of my thoughts as I heard a soft knocking on my door and looked over.

"Come in," I said quietly as I had my arms folded over my chest.

The door opened and there stood my grandmother, she may be old, but she was still strong and healthy, just like my grandfather.

"Oh, hi Grandma," I sighed looking away from her and stared out of the window.

"Sally dear, are you okay?" she asked. She made her way into the room and sat across from me on the windowsill. "You've been very quiet all morning."

"It's nothing, really," I shrugged as I looked away. My grandmother was very stern and she can tell when I'm lying or avoiding conflicts.

"Sally, I know this divorce is very difficult on you, but…"

"But what?" I cried as tears formed in my eyes. " Why is this happening? Maybe it was because of me, and I'm the cause of this!"

"Sally Louise McGiverns!" Grandma said sharply. "Do not say those words! Your parents' divorce has nothing to do with you. Mostly divorces involve around money, and probably lack of communication. It seems to me that your parents may have grown apart."

"I thought they'd be together forever! Just like you and Grandpa!" I grumbled.

"Yes, some couples' marriages do last forever, but sometimes others don't," Grandma stated firmly, and sighed gently. "I mean Grandpa and I fight sometimes and have a few disagreements, but that doesn't stop us from loving each other."

"But how?" I asked, taking off my purple rim glasses and rubbed the lenses on my turquoise t-shirt to clean the tears, as I also wiped my hazel eyes. "Relationships don't make sense at all, and what if it happens to me? What if I don't find the right guy?"

Grandma put her hands on my shoulders and gave me a firm, but kind look.

"You don't have to go into relationships very quickly sweetie. If they try to give in, just ignore them and walk away. That was how I felt before I met your grandfather, even your father before he met your mother. Odds are, I know that someday you'll find the right one to be not only a partner or husband, but your best friend."

"I guess so. I feel so alone."

Grandma wrapped her arms around my shoulders and hugged me. "You are not alone dear, Grandpa and I will always be there for you and we love you very much."

"I love you too Grandma."

"Maybe you should go out for some air and meet up with your friends," she suggested. "It's not healthy to stay up in your room all day."

"Yes, Grandma. I think you're right," I said.

I got up from the window seat and pulled on my brown sneakers, and we both headed down the stairs and I went to the front door.

"Enjoy yourself dear, be back before six!" Grandma called. "Be sure to stay on the left sidewalk."

"Yes Grandma!" I called. "I'll be back in a few hours! I promise!"

I closed the door and walked along the left sidewalk, with each step I took, I inhaled the cool and crisp autumn breeze. Walks have been known to calm me down when I'm sad and lonely. The breeze formed goose bumps on my skin, although I don't mind the cold very much.

I kept walking down and turned to the corner where one of my friends lived, I looked across to see one of my neighbors, Eliza. She was a cute little girl, with her blonde hair in pigtails and rode her tricycle with joy as she sang. She suddenly ran into a lawn, and struggled to move. She stopped and looked at the old house, and my gut clenched in fear.

This old house had two windows on the second floor, with a door, old scraped paint, loose shingles, a porch, and dead trees on the dead lawn. The owner of the house was a mean old man named Horace Nebbercracker, and my grandparents forbid me from going near his house and walking on that sidewalk.

Nebbercracker hated all children, and when a kid loses his/her toy or belonging, he comes out on the lawn and takes the item away shouting at them to get out. When I was seven, I once left my doll, Lizzie on his lawn and tried to get it back, then he came out and scared me half to death, causing me to run away in tears. Not only was he a recluse, but also there were many rumors spread about him, that he catches children and dogs to eat them for breakfast, and the most common rumor was that he killed his own wife and ate her.

My thoughts were interrupted as I saw an old man charging out from his door and shouted at the little girl, "Get off my lawn!"

Eliza screamed and tried to ride away, but her tricycle was stuck on the grass. Nebbercracker came towards her with his arms in the air.

"Trespasser!"

The old man got near her and gave her a hard glare.

"Do you want to be eaten alive?"

"No," Eliza said meekly.

"THEN GET OUT OF HERE!" He bellowed.

Eliza screamed, got off her trike, and ran away. She stopped and looked back.

"My trike," She cried.

Nebbercracker grabbed her trike and tore it apart, giving Eliza another scary face. Eliza began to cry and ran away to home from the crazy old man.

"Stay away from my house!" he shouted.

I glared at the old man, oh how I wanted to stand up to him and shame on him for scaring Eliza, but I never found the courage to do so. I watched as Mr. Nebbercracker walked straight back to his house with Eliza's broken tricycle. He looked back again, and he caught me staring at him and growled.

I gasped and looked away and saw Mr. and Mrs. Walters walking out of the house and called to their son.

"DJ!" his mother called.

"We're gonna be late!" his father said.

"I'm coming!" a voice called from inside.

"Hey Sally!" DJ's dad came up to me with a friendly smile.

"Oh, hi Mr. Walters," I replied as I shyly smiled. "Where are you and Mrs. Walters off to today?"

"We're off to a dentist convention, for the night. We're hoping to encourage more people to brush their teeth right. Even floss, do you floss?"

"Oh yes," I said clearing my throat. "Yes, I do floss 24/7, even I brush my teeth after every other meal."

"Good for you!" Mr. Walters smiled. "I hope DJ gets his butt out soon."

"Mom," I saw DJ running out from the house. DJ had dark hair and brown eyes, he wore a red, white, and black striped shirt, blue jeans and blue/brown sneakers came to his mother. "Mom, he did it again. He took another tricycle."

His mother was not listening and gave him a firm look.

"Okay, honey, we've talked about this. You cannot stay up in your room all day staring at an old man through a telescope." She reprimanded him.

"But, Mom, there's something wrong with that house. I'm serious," DJ complained in a childish voice.

"What was that?" Mrs. Walters asked. She did not like DJ's attitude at all.

DJ cleared his throat and spoke in a serious mature voice, "I'm serious."

"His voice sounds funny." DJ's mom said as she gave him a look.

"Someone is hitting puberty. 'What's happening to my body?' Right, buddy?" his father said jokingly as held a model of a tooth.

"Maybe you should come with us." His mom said worryingly.

"Oh, the boy's too busy. He's got his spying to do." His dad said.

"I'm not spying," DJ protested. "Well..."

''Well... That's okay, buddy. When I was your age, I did exactly the same thing. Of course, it was with binoculars and involved the lovely Jensen twins," Mrs. Walters gave her husband a look. "Neither of which was as lovely as your beautiful mother. Will you be an angel and help me bring out the incisor?"

"Oh, the incisor," she said in relief. "Yeah, you don't wanna forget that."

"Hold this," his dad gave the model of the tooth to his son as they checked around the house one more time. DJ and I looked back to see Nebbercracker pulling down the blindfolds in his house.

As the Walters' started up the engine, they rolled down the window and looked back at us.

"Elizabeth will be here in a few hours," his mom said. "If anything happens, call the police and hide in your closet."

"He knows that," his dad said.

"See you tomorrow night," Mrs. Walters said waving.

As the car backed up from the driveway, another boy wearing a monster mask, with a basketball roared and the Walters' accidentally hit him. I gasped in shock hoping he wasn't hurt.

"I'm okay," the boy said as he slowly went up to the front.

"What have you done?" Mrs. Walters cried.

"Just let me drive this thing, will you?" Mr. Walters said.

"Where is DJ? Where's DJ?" his Mom cried.

"I'm fine." The boy reached up to them.

"You would be so happy if he was under the car, wouldn't you?" his Dad argued. He rolled down the window to watch our friend come up to them.

"Sorry. It's hard to see with the mask on," he admitted.

"Then why don't you keep it off, Chowder?" Mr. Walters said as he tore the mask off in annoyance. As he rolled up the window, he and his wife start to have an argument.

"Chowder," DJ said depressingly.

"Hi, DJ," Chowder said. "Hi Sally."

"Hey, Chowder," I said. Chowder had blonde hair, blue eyes, and was overweight. He wore a baby blue t-shirt, a red cape with tan pants and sneakers.

After a while of arguing his mother rolled down the window saying, "We both love you. That includes your dad."

"That's right," his dad agreed as the car rolled over Chowder's mask leaving tire tracks. We watched as the car rolled down the driveway and rode away down the street.

DJ let out a scream of distraught, it seems that nothing is working out for him.

"Cheer up. It's almost Halloween. In one day and three hours, it's candy time. Okay?" Chowder said.

DJ didn't say anything, as he was more depressed than I am about the divorce.

"How are ya Sally?" he asked.

"I'm all right, everything is getting a little peaceful at my grandparents' house. I should think about Halloween to get out of my depression."

"Don't worry Sal," Chowder put his hand on me. "Everything's gonna be fine. You'll see."

I gave a small smile to Chowder, and my cheeks blushed up.

"Check it out, I got a new ball," he said.

"Cool," DJ said. Chowder passed him the ball and we begin to play basketball. I wasn't much of a sports person, but I guess a little exercise never hurts.

"Oh, speaking of which, have you decided? Skullzor or Crypt Keeper?" Chowder asked and imitated a scary monster, which made me sigh. Sometimes he's a little weird and immature, but he does have a heart of gold.

"Chowder, Sally," DJ said. "I don't think I'm going trick-or-treating this year."

"What?" Chowder was surprised.

"Really?" I raised my eyebrows.

DJ shot up the ball and it went through the hoop. I grabbed the ball and tried to get it in the hoop.

"Come on, you're gonna break a six-year streak," Chowder said.

"Yeah, six years of being jumped and egged," DJ complained.

"Even getting pranked and scared by monsters in haunted houses. Although I still have my costume," I said. "DJ, I know you think your parents still treat you like a baby, but you gotta show them that you're a big boy."

"I know, if only they could just listen to me," DJ admitted as he threw the ball up. "Maybe I'm getting too grown-up."

Chowder caught the ball and made a whinny face at DJ, and began to bounce the ball on the driveway imitating a professional basketball player.

"Three seconds on the clock," the blond boy twirled around us. "I'm playing basketball. It's time for an in-your-face disgrace."

As Chowder shot the ball back up into the hoop, the ball hit the rim and smacked him in the face and balanced away. Chowder landed on the ground in pain and clutched his nose.

"Chowder!" I cried as DJ and I knelt to him.

"Are you okay?" DJ asked.

"My nose is in my brains," Chowder cried.

"Let me see," DJ checked him. "Oh, my God."

"What?" Chowder asked as he scrunched up his nose.

"You're a dork," the dark haired boy said.

"You're fine Chowder," I said. "No nose bleed, you're a-okay."

"Where's my ball?" Chowder asked.

I looked around, hoping it landed on the street. But my thoughts turned to fear as I saw where the basketball was.

"Um, Chowder, I think I know where your ball is," I said pointing over.


	2. Nebbercracker's Heart Attack

"Oh, no!" Chowder said.

The basketball landed on Nebbercraker's lawn, and it was really, really, bad. Sooner or later, that lunatic is gonna take it away. DJ, Chowder, and I ran to the other side and stood behind the sidewalk. But staring at the house, made my spinal cord shiver in fear.

"Sorry, man," DJ said putting his hand on Chowder's shoulder. Just as he was about to turn away, Chowder stopped him.

"Wait, wait. DJ," Chowder said. "You're a grown up now, you go get it."

"Chowder, your ball just landed on Nebbercracker's lawn. It doesn't exist anymore."

"You know what happens when you lose an item, Nebbercracker always takes it away, and shoos you off his lawn," I said. "He did that to me once, when I lost Lizzie."

Chowder than began to whimper and looked at us with puppy eyes.

"I paid $28 for that ball. I raked ten yards and asked my mom for a dollar twenty-six times," Chowder moaned. "I never worked that hard in my life."

DJ shushed us and looked at the two windows that were covered by the drapes, I guess Nebbercracker probably went to take a nap and cool off from scaring Eliza earlier.

"Nebbercracker hasn't come out yet," DJ said.

"So?" Chowder asked.

"So maybe he's sleeping," the dark haired boy added.

"DJ, I don't think this is such a good idea," I said. "I have a really bad feeling about this.

DJ ignored me, and decided to take the risk of trespassing on a cranky old man's lawn.

"All right, I'll do it," DJ's toes were on the lawn.

"Well, you can go and go it, but I'm staying here. I won't go against my grandparents' wish."

"Suit yourself," DJ muttered.

"I'll never forget this," Chowder said and pushed DJ. "Hurry, though."

"Go," DJ whispered and we watched him run across the lawn, swift as a deer. So far, so good, there was no sign of the old man. Just as DJ was about to grab the ball, the door swung open, and Old Man Nebbercracker came out growling.

"You," He hissed.

"Aw, crap!" I cried.

"No!" DJ flinched. Nebbercracker came charging towards DJ to attack him, but he ducked and ran over the sidewalk.

"DJ, run!" Chowder called. "Get the ball and run!"

"Get out of here!" I called.

As DJ tried to escape, he accidentally, kicked a clump of grass over the sidewalk. Nebbercracker stared at him for a short moment, before he went into another rant.

"You're so close," Chowder called.

"What have you done?" Nebbercracker asked angrily.

"Just nudge it over here," Chowder kept calling.

"I'm so sorry. Oh, I'm so, so, so sorry. I didn't mean," DJ stammered.

"You are dead!" Nebbercracker shouted as he started to chase our friend.

"DJ, come on, come on!" Chowder called.

"Run for your life!" I screamed.

Before DJ could escape, Nebbercracker grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back. I gasped in horror as my heart began to pound fiercely in my chest.

"Chowder! Sally!" DJ cried as he was pulled back.

"Come on, DJ!" Chowder cried.

"Help! Chowder! Sally!" DJ tried to reach his hand out to us. I grabbed onto his and tried to pull him back. Nebbercracker was too strong and DJ's hand slipped out of mine.

"Help! Help!" Chowder shouted in order to get the neighborhood to hear us. Sighing in exasperation, I decided to step in to stop this. Without warning, Nebbercracker lifted DJ up in the air, I got so scared, I was afraid he was gonna kill him, I'm not gonna act like a coward.

"You think you can terrorize my lawn?" Nebbercracker shouted as he shook DJ.

"No, I'm sorry," DJ cried.

"Get away from him you lunatic! You leave him alone!" I shouted. I grabbed his arm, to release DJ. He turned his attention to me, and with his hand shoved me away. I landed on the lawn as my glasses were thrown off my face. I crawled to look for them, and my vision was very blurry without them. I looked up to see Nebbercracker still holding DJ.

"You wanna be a dead person?" Nebbercracker bellowed.

"No. I love life." DJ cried.

"This place is not a playground for children."

"Got it from now on," DJ agreed.

"This is my house!" Nebbercracker screamed. "Why can't you respect that? Why can't you just stay away from-?"

Suddenly, the old man froze for a moment and DJ stared at him terrified. Nebbercracker swayed for a moment and he fell forward and lies still on top of DJ. I then felt something on the grass, and I grabbed them. It was my glasses, and after putting them on, I looked over and stared at Nebbercracker's dead body lying on top of DJ. The dark-haired boy was terrified for a moment as he tried to shake the man off.

* * *

Without wasting a moment, DJ got up from the ground and ran into his house with Chowder to call 911. I stayed by Nebbercracker to keep him some company until help arrived. I heard a creaking and noticed the house was moaning, I shook it out and heard an ambulance blaring and it came to the front. The paramedics came and placed Nebbercracker on the stretcher with his arm hanging down.

We watched the paramedics carrying the old man to the ambulance and noticed something shining on the grass. DJ picked it up and saw that it was a key and he clasped it in his palm.

As the paramedics came near, the stretcher was grabbed by something. The men continued to pull it and got the stretcher free. Chowder looked at us and gave us a dumb smile, and I gave him a stern look.

We watched as the ambulance drove away with Nebbercracker all the way to the hospital or the graveyard. My heart was pressured with guilt and pity for the old man, I know he's cruel, but somehow I felt sympathy for him.

"No siren, never a good sign," Chowder said. We looked back at the house and stared at the sight. I looked up and noticed something very odd. There was smoke billowing from the chimney.

"I'm a murderer," DJ said.

"No you're not." Chowder said.

"I'm not?"

"When it's an accident they call it manslaughter," Chowder said reassuring our friend.

"DJ, this isn't your fault," I said. "It's the force of nature that gives our bodies accidents."

DJ gulped, "I think I'm gonna throw up."

Then loud music was playing as a car pulled up in DJ's driveway.

"Great, the babysitter's here," he said.

Chowder took off and waved back, "See ya DJ! Bye Sally!"

"Bye Chowder!" I turned to DJ. "I have to go home now, Grandma and Grandpa are waiting for me. I'll see you tomorrow."

I ran off into the other direction towards home. I took another look back at the old house and noticed the window shades opening. I felt a chill go up my spine, and I picked up my running pace as far away from the old house.

* * *

I came home to take deep breaths as I joined my grandparents for dinner, all the while as I listened to them talking as I ate, I kept thinking about the house and suddenly a voice echoed eerily in my mind. It felt that Nebbercracker's voice or someone else was starting to possess me. I shook it out and decided to go to bed early to put this event behind me and move on.

After my lukewarm bath, I got into my pajamas and lie in my bed as I brought out my book of Brothers Grimm fairy tales. I decided to read one of my favorite stories, _King Bluebeard._ When I first read it, I had few nightmares about Bluebeard trying to kill me for going into his forbidden room. I found it creepy to read about a mad guy who had many wives and kills them all by hiding them in a secret room. Then the last wife discovers the truth about them and he tries to kill her, but he ends up getting killed and she gets the happy ending.

After exhausting myself with the reading, I took off my glasses, shut off the lamp and pass out in my sleep as I hit my pillow.


	3. Ding Dong Ditch Goes Wrong

All of a sudden, I woke up and heard the phone next to me ringing. I grabbed the device and put it to my ear.

"Hello?" I murmured sleepily. All I heard was breathing, as if a ghost was calling to me. I sighed in exhaustion and placed the phone down. Then the phone rang again and as I picked it up, I heard the same breathing again. I sighed and placed it down. I then sat up and put on my glasses and looked at my alarm clock, it was 11:11 PM. who would be calling me late at this time of night?

I looked out of my window and noticed the silver moonlight shining into my room as the shadows of the tree branches danced from the wind. My thoughts were snapped as the phone rang again, I picked it up and answered it.

"Hello, this is Sally speaking," I said.

"Sally, it's DJ," I sighed in relief that it was my friend.

"DJ, why are you calling me this late?"

"I want you to meet me and Chowder at the Danger Zone, immediately."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"I'll explain when we get together, where are your grandparents?"

"My grandparents are still sleeping," I said. "I should leave them a note to let them know where I'm at, hopefully they'll understand."

"Okay," DJ said.

"I'll be out soon," I said.

I hung up the phone and got into my regular clothes. I quickly wrote a note and left it on my bed. I packed up my backpack filled with books and notebooks. After pulling on my jacket, I opened the window and slowly walked on the roof. I crawled across the tree branch and climbed down, landing safely. I walked through the neighborhood as the light from the lampposts shimmered in the dark.

* * *

I walked for another hour and I came to a wooden fence with a glowing sign that reads, _Mayville Luxury Towers._ The lake there was drained and the community decided to build a hotel there and it was still under construction. I heard footsteps coming and I turned around to see DJ coming up.

"Hey DJ," I whispered.

"Hey Sally," he said. "Have you seen Chowder?"

"No, I haven't, I just got here."

"All right, follow me," we walked through the gate and looked around the construction site. At least no one is working in the nighttime.

"Chowder," DJ whispered.

"Chowder," I whispered.

We walked past the excavator, as everything around us was dead and still. DJ suddenly stopped and held me back in time, as pebbles rolled away. We looked down and saw that we were at the edge of the drained lake.

"Careful DJ, it's a long way down," I said.

"Whoa," he said nodding and then there was a large blaring honk and I jumped out of my skin. I let out a scream as I whirled around, and it was only Chowder standing at the excavator honking the horn.

"Heat seeker!" he cried.

"Chowder, what are you doing?" DJ asked.

"Chowder, you almost made me pee my pants!" I snapped.

We came up to Chowder as he made noises of a truck and roars.

"Shut up!" the dark-haired boy snapped.

"What?" Chowder whined.

"Okay, DJ, why did you bring us here?" I asked.

"Nebbercracker's back from the dead," he stated.

"What?" I exclaimed.

"No way," Chowder said.

"Yeah," DJ said.

Chowder didn't listened and noticed the keys hanging from a hook and he picked them up, "They leave the keys in here. You dare me?"

"Chowder, don't you dare!" I warned him as he put the keys in the ignition.

"Chowder, you're not listening to me," DJ replied as he made Chowder face him. "Nebbercracker's haunting me, all right? His blood is on my hands. And now he's coming back for revenge."

Chowder gave him a look and he didn't believe him, and I looked at him.

"You're really crazy right now," he said. "Have you noticed that? I think you're just freaking out because you killed a guy today."

DJ shook his head.

"Oh for crying out loud, guys, Nebbercracker just had a heart attack. It was just too much pressure for holding DJ today," I said in exasperation.

"Life goes on," Chowder said. "For you guys. Try and relax. Be cool, like me."

The blond boy rested his arm on a lever and activates it, turning the vehicle on and the light flashed.

"Chowder, what are you doing?" DJ asked.

"Make it stop!" Chowder pressed some buttons and tried to turn it off.

"Hurry up, or the neighbors will wake up!" I snapped.

DJ pulled out the key from the ignition and the engine stopped and I took deep breaths to relieve myself.

"Quit screwing around," DJ snapped. "I need your help, even Sally's."

"Fine," Chowder gave up. "You want our help?"

"Yeah," DJ replied.

"I got three words for you: Trick-or-Treat!" Chowder held up three fingers and pulled each one down. He gave DJ a threatening fist shake with a grunt.

"Okay, whatever, let's go," DJ said.

* * *

After getting out of the construction site, we came to DJ's house and walked across the street to Old Man Nebbercracker's house and we silently tiptoed towards it.

"Hold on," Chowder said panting in and out from running. We came up to a tree as DJ motioned to us, "Come on."

We looked from behind to watch the creepy old house, and I felt goose bumps forming onto my arms as the cold wind blew my thick dark hair.

"The haunting is subtle, yet really, really, boring," Chowder complained. "Can I go home now?"

"This is ridiculous," I said.

"Chowder, Sally, he'll hear you," DJ shushed us and he pulled us behind the tree.

"DJ, Sally, this is why nobody will sit next to us at lunch," Chowder said. "I'll go Ding Dong Ditch the house and you'll see. No ghost."

"Chowder, stop, please, Chowder, I'm serious, Chowder, come back." DJ begged, but our friend didn't listened to us and he crawled on the lawn like a military soldier. "Come back here, please, Chowder."

"Chowder, get your butt off lawn!" I cried.

"Come on. Chowder. Come back," DJ cried.

Chowder ignored us and kept crawling towards the house. After crawling for a few feet, he stopped and picked up an object.

"Oh, no. A bottle," he laughed.

"Chowder, put that down. Come back, please," DJ snapped, but Chowder kept laughing with two thumbs up. As he kept crawling towards the house, my eyes widened as I saw the bottle sink into the lawn.

"Bottle," he chuckled.

Chowder reached the sidewalk and stood up on his feet and climbed up the steps to the porch. He did a quick examination, and he was not taking it seriously.

"Chowder, I wouldn't do that if I were you," I warned him.

Chowder turned around to us.

"Hey, DJ, Sally, who am I?" he called and imitated Nebbercracker. "Get off my lawn!"

"Don't. Come on," DJ warned him. Chowder pretended to choke himself and recreate Nebbercracker's heart attack. He then shrugged and laughed and turned around to the door.

He rang the doorbell and it ranged throughout the house. Chowder gave us a smile and turned back. Suddenly, there was a tremor and I watched as the window shades went up with the windows glowing gold. My hazel eyes widened behind my lens as I stared at the house with DJ.

A creaking was heard as wood shreds fell from the walls and the door swung opened, whatever it was that was inside was really terrifying. Chowder froze there as a statue as more wood was stripped down and formed teeth. The second floor made a glare and a long red carpet stuck out. Chowder tried to run, but he tripped down the stairs.

"Holy crap!" I cried. "The house is alive!"

"Run. Chowder, get out of there!" DJ called.

Chowder ran for his life as the red carpet chased after him,

"Chowder, come here!" I cried.

"Mommy!"

"This way. This way." DJ and I kept calling to him waving our arms.

"Help," Chowder cried.

"Come on, Chowder! Chowder, this way!" DJ cried.

"Hurry!" I screamed.

The carpet reached out to catch Chowder, but it stopped once it reached the sidewalk and went back in. As Chowder reached us, he crashed into us and we fell on the ground. We looked back and the house roared back at us in monster form, and my blood began to pump harder in my veins.

We all screamed and ran straight across the street to DJ's house and went through the door.

"Don't look back!" DJ cried.

Chowder and I looked back to see the house in its' normal state, and then it turned back into a monster and roared back at us.

"AHHHHH! I looked back!" Chowder screamed as he immediately closed the door in fright.

"I looked back too!" I screamed and ran up the stairs, went into DJ's room and hid underneath his bed, shaking all over with my arms covering my head. I stayed under there the whole night, scared to death.


	4. Meeting Jenny

I stayed underneath my bed the whole night shaking in fright, and I tried to fall asleep. But my body was all tingling, and I felt my bladder could explode. I looked to see the floor covered in green bottles. I spotted Chowder sitting at the telescope with the cape over his head. DJ sat at his desk writing more notes along with the record of days and toys Nebbercracker has taken from the kids. The alarm went off, waking up the boys.

"Eight a.m. No detectable movement," Chowder said yawning.

"No detectable movement," DJ said writing it down.

"Are you sure it's safe to come out?" I asked.

"It is Sally," DJ replied. I was about to crawl out from under the bed, when the door to DJ's room swung opened. It was a young woman, with short uneven black hair dressed in Goth like clothing. It was DJ's babysitter. I immediately hid underneath the bed again to hide.

"Hey, DJ, I brought you some chocolate," she said. DJ shushed her as Chowder turned around, and uncovered his head. Her eyes widened in shock to see us, and turned on the light. Chowder fell off of the stool, and DJ ran over to turn off the light switch in fear.

"Cover blown?" DJ cried.

The blond boy ran back to the window and looked through the telescope and to our relief, the house did not move.

"No detectable movement," he said.

"What are you two weirdoes up to?" the woman asked.

"Oh, nothing," Chowder shrugged and raised his voice. "Just something in the house across the street just tried to eat us."

"Well, he ding dong ditch it and came to life," I spoke up and I gasped. The babysitter got to her knees and saw me.

"What's she doing here?" she asked sarcastically.

"I'm hiding," I said. I crawled out and got to my feet. "I'm Sally, I'm a friend of DJ and Chowder's. Aside from that, I've been hiding underneath the bed all night."

"Yeah," DJ agreed. "We've been watching all night. We haven't even left this room once. Not even to go to the bathroom. Don't drink that."

The babysitter picked up one of our green bottles and it was filled with disgusting yellow pee, I nearly peed my pants as I hid underneath the bed. Last night, DJ brought out the empty bottles of Mountain Dew he drank, and we took turns peeing into each with a funnel. Only I took a tinkle in the closet to get some privacy from the boys.

"Oh, gross," she said in disgust holding the bottle and set it down on the ground. "Whatever disease you guys have... I'm sure it's got letters and that they make pills for it."

"Zee, it's true," DJ suggested. "There's something evil going on across the street."

"That's excellent. I'm really happy for you," Zee said in sarcasm. "Anyway, have you three astronomers seen Bones? He left last night unexpectedly... and he never came back."

I never met this Bones guy, and he doesn't sound very pleasant.

"Never came back?" DJ asked.

"Bottle," Chowder said in realization.

"Of course," DJ gasped.

So that's what happened and why there was a bottle on the lawn, Bones must have been lured by the house and got eaten.

"Oh, okay, you know what?" Zee said impatiently. "I don't have time for this."

"Listen, Zee, I don't know how to tell you this…" Chowder said coming up to her.

"Your boyfriend has most likely been eaten alive," DJ added.

"By the Monster House," I finished.

Zee was not taking us seriously and she had a feeling that Bones might be cheating on her.

"Sherry Klausen," Zee glared at us and threw a chocolate bar at DJ. "I gotta go. Breakfast. Happy Halloween, losers."

* * *

"Well, she didn't believe us," I said. "Adults never believe what kids say what they say with their own eyes, a house that tried to eat them!"

"Look Sally," Chowder said, putting his hand on my shoulder. "Let's just ignore her for now."

"Yeah, we've got a house to investigate," DJ agreed. We went back to work as I stood next to Chowder watching the house, while DJ went back to his desk.

I watched through the window shades as I noticed Chowder spotted something through the telescope. His eyes widened in surprise and he was filled with glee.

"Hello," he said smiling.

"What?" DJ stood up from his desk. "What is it?"

"Oh, nothing," Chowder said day dreamily as he looked through the telescope.

"Let me see," DJ pushed himself over to look through and he, along with Chowder sighed in content.

"What is it?" I asked. I looked through the telescope and I gasped. They were looking a girl around my age pulling a wagon of Halloween candy. Her red hair was in pigtails with red ribbons. She had green eyes, and wore a maroon jacket with a navy blue skirt, white knee length socks and blue Mary Jane shoes. I growled in annoyance and turned to the boys.

"Oh really, you guys are just gonna stare at some girl selling Halloween Candy while we're supposed to investigate a Monster House?" I asked as I crossed my arms.

The boys ignored me and looked back through the telescope. I gave them a long stare and they gasped in fright and looked at each other.

"Oh, no." they exclaimed. They immediately ran out of DJ's room.

"What?" I called. I looked through the window and saw the girl coming towards Nebbercracker's house and my eyes widened in horror.

"Uh-oh!" I cried. I ran down the stairs after DJ and Chowder to stop the girl as the phone rang.

"No. No. Hey!" Chowder called.

"Hey, wait. Hey!" DJ cried.

"Stop!" I cried.

I zipped past Zee and I headed out the door following my friends.

"DJ, that's your phone!" Zee called. We ignored her as the door closed and ran across the street as the girl was walking towards the door.

"No, stop," DJ called.

"Girl. Hey!" Chowder exclaimed.

"Get away from that!" I cried.

"Don't go in there!" the dark haired boy warned.

"Hold it!" the blond said.

"Get out of there!" I cried.

The girl stopped and looked back at us, as a 'keep off' sign was pulled into the ground. She gave us a skeptical look.

"Don't go any further," DJ warned. "Come here."

"Yes, over here," Chowder said, waving his hands.

"You stay away from that house! It's evil!" I ordered.

The redhead gave us a sarcastic smiley look and she didn't believe us.

"Are you guys mentally challenged?" she asked. "If you are, I'm certified to teach you baseball."

As she spoke to us, the house began to move. DJ, Chowder, and I gasped as the house turned into a monster and was ready for attack. The girl turned around and gasped as she saw the house come to life before her very own eyes.

"Detectable movement!" Chowder screamed.

The posts on the porch began to form into fangs and the girl landed back into her wagon and screamed. Without warning, the sidewalk shot up like a rocket with the girl sliding in her wagon. The next pavement went up and caught the girl and swung her back and forth. Oh God, that girl's gonna get eaten like Bones!

"What do we do? What do we do?" Chowder panicked.

"Come on!" DJ ordered.

"We can't just stand here! We have to save her, before she gets eaten!" I cried. I may have felt envy for her, but I can't bear the thought of losing another innocent soul.

"Guys!" we heard the girl calling as she was swung in the wagon. We ran across the lawn as the house swung her on the third pavement.

"Run, Chowder! Run Sally!" DJ cried as he was running on the right side of the lawn.

"We're running!" Chowder cried as he and I ran on the left side.

"Help, please!" the girl cried. The pavement formed a deep slide as the red carpet stuck out to eat her. DJ, Chowder, and I reached to the edge as before the girl could slide in, DJ and Chowder grabbed her arms and I grabbed her hand. We watched as the wagon of Halloween candy got swallowed by the house with its' wooden teeth catching it.

DJ and Chowder began to argue as they pulled the girl back and froth by her hands.

"Got her!" DJ said.

"No, I got her," Chowder argued.

Then DJ toppled over, pulling the red haired girl over to his side and I fell back with Chowder.

"Hello?" Zee called as she opened the door. The house noticed the young woman, pulled down the pavements of the sidewalk and turned itself back into a normal looking house. We all sat up and took deep breaths at the close call.

"Hey!" the babysitter called.

"Oh, my God," the girl stammered as she tried to relieve her pounding heart. We looked over to see Zee holding up the phone.

"There's an angry dad on the phone looking for the one called Chowder," she said.

Chowder got up and pulled me to his feet and we walked off the lawn. I looked back to see DJ helping the girl up. We left the lawn and watched as the house stood motionless as if nothing had happened.

"Hello! Losers, I'm talking to you," Zee called.

The redhead looked back at the house and was scared out of her wits. DJ ran over to Zee and I came back to the girl.

"Come on," I beckoned her. "Let's get far away from the house."

The girl nodded as she followed me.

"He's worried about you," Zee said, as she held out the phone to Chowder.

"He should be," he snapped as he took the phone away and walked into the house.

"Start explaining," she warned us.

"All right, the house, it tried to eat us," DJ cried.

"All right, Stop explaining, I've had enough," Zee said annoyed. She walked past us to the house

"Wait, wait, where are you going?" DJ asked stopping her.

"To see what's happening with that stupid house of yours," Zee said rudely as she came towards the house.

"No, no, no. You can't!" DJ cried as he grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"What is your problem?" she yelled.

DJ had to find a way to prevent Zee from getting eaten by the Monster House. So, he came up with the best solution.

"Puberty. Yeah, I'm having lots and lots of puberty," he said.

Zee looked back at the house as it continued to creak, and she turned back to us with a cold stare.

"No more Mountain Dew," she said.

"Right," DJ smiled dumbly.

"I'm going to find Bones," she announced and walked away.

"All right, you have fun," DJ said as he took her arm. "Don't worry about us, we'll be fine. And you tell him I said hey, okay?"

Zee got out of DJ's grip as she walked to her car in irritation.

"Safe driving. See you!" he waved as the young woman ignored him. I got up to the door to meet up Chowder. I looked back and watched as the red-haired girl came up to DJ and tapped him on the shoulder. The boy turned around and looked at her. "Oh, hi."

"You wanna tell me what's going on?" she asked giving him a stare.

"Oh, yeah. I made the whole puberty thing up," DJ stammered and he held out his hand for a handshake. "Hi, I'm JD. DJ."

They shook hands and I continued to walk up to the stairs to hear Chowder having an argument with his dad.


	5. Dibs on Girls

I walked up the stairs and heard Chowder speaking to his dad on the phone, and I came into DJ's room to listen to the conversation.

"Yes Dad, I meant to call you, but I forgot," Chowder said and it seemed that his dad was yelling at him. "Okay, I'm sorry! Okay. Absolutely. Affirmative…. Okay, love you. Bye."

"Well?" I asked.

"At least we got even," he said.

I fibbed my lips together and rolled my eyes. As the blond boy hung up the phone, DJ opened the door leading the girl in. I stood up straight and hid my jealously away from her. The girl had her jacket off and wore a white polo shirt, held by suspenders.

"And this is our little observation post..." DJ announced as he led the girl to his room and closed the door. "Such as it were. Yeah, posters are stupid. I was gonna tear them down and put up some art."

I looked over as Chowder got back on the phone and pretended to call his father.

"Well, Dad, why don't you kiss my hairy butt?" he shouted on the phone and threw it on the bed. He turned to us. "Hey, DJ, you got any beer?"

He then noticed the redhead girl and was falling for her, I gave him a glare he then said flirtatiously, "Well, hello there."

"This is Chowder," DJ said.

"Charles, to the ladies," he said as he shook the girl's hand.

"Um, Jenny Bennett," the girl introduced herself. "Two-term class president at Westbrook Prep."

"That's a tough school to get into," DJ said.

"That place must be expensive," I said. I could never see myself got to a private school with strict rules and wear itchy starched uniforms. No one seemed to be listening to me.

"Yeah, I got in, but decided not to go," Chowder said.

"It's a girls' school," Jenny said giving him a look. DJ gave him a smirk as I frowned.

"Which is why I didn't," he said awkwardly.

I cleared my throat and they turned to me. Even Jenny came up to shake my hand, now noticing that there is another girl with two boys. At least I'm getting their attention.

"Oh, and what's your name?" she asked.

"Sally, Sally McGiverns," I said holding out my hand as she shook it.

"You know, there's a..." Chowder stuttered to get Jenny to listen. "There's a great taco stand near there."

"I hate Mexican food," Jenny said.

"Me too," DJ and Chowder said at the same time.

Jenny came up to the window and peered through the window shutters to stare at the house. Chowder and I came up to her and watched.

"You're lucky, if Nebbercracker was there, he would've chased you off and take away your wagon," I said.

"Nebbercracker?" the girl raised an eyebrow at me.

"He owns the house, that tried to eat you. For many years, he always takes anything that lands on his lawn. But yesterday, he kicked the bucket when we tried to get Chowder's ball back," I said.

Jenny rolled her eyes at me, and I gave a sigh of annoyance at her. First we saved her, and now she doesn't say thanks to us. I guess we'd never be friends with her.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" Chowder asked. "Just sits there waiting... ...mocking us with its..." he whispered into her ear. "...Houseness."

I gave a small gasp and glared at Chowder, he starts to flirt with Jenny. When will he get out of his stupid weird attitude? Jenny got annoyed and turned to DJ.

"May I please use your phone?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure," Chowder said.

DJ picked up the phone to give to the redhead and asked. "Here, who you calling?

"My mother," she replied and began to dial the number.

"Rude," Chowder said hitting DJ's arm.

"You know, she's probably not gonna believe you. It's too much for the adult's mind to comprehend," said DJ.

"Um, is this pee? Because if it is, that's really gross!" Jenny said staring at the green plastic bottle in disgust. DJ and I laughed in response.

"DJ?" Chowder gasped pointing to the bottles. "You pee in bottles?"

"What are you talking about? That one's your pee!" DJ argued as he too pointed.

"Uh-ah, it's your pee!" the blond said and turned to me. "Or, it must be yours, Sally!"

"No way! That is not my pee!" I gasped. "It must be yours!"

As we continued to argue about whose pee it is, I looked over to see the girl trying to call her mother and she was answered.

"May I speak with Allison?" Jenny said on the phone. "Her daughter. Thank you."

"It's his pee," DJ said as the girl was on the phone.

"Excuse me," Jenny said to us. "Mom, I was selling chocolates in Mayville, and, well, it's kind of confusing."

As soon as Jenny closed the door, I looked over as the boys stared at each other. Chowder sat on the bed, and DJ was leaning onto his desk. The dark-haired boy turned over to Chowder.

"So you hate Mexican food, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah. You too, huh?" Chowder responded getting impatient.

"Yeah, in fact, you might say I started hating it first," DJ said as he walked towards the boy. "Outside in front of the house?

Chowder got off of the bed and walked up to DJ.

"Fine. Let's get technical," the blond said.

"Okay," DJ said.

"I started hating it through the telescope," Chowder pushed DJ.

I sighed in annoyance. Great, they're going through another stupid argument, and it reminds me of when Mom and Dad were fighting while I'm upstairs in my bed, trying to sleep.

"Can't call dibs on a girl through a telescope," DJ replied pushing Chowder back.

"You can't call dibs on a girl," Chowder pushed him back.

"Just did."

"Me too."

"Can you two stop fighting and shut up?" I snapped and the boys looked back at me. "I don't want to hear anymore arguments between the two of you, it's bringing me back bad memories of when my parents fought! And can't you see that I'm here, while there's another girl here? You could also call dibs on me!"

Before the boys could respond to me, Jenny opened the door. Her face was filled with disappointment.

"What happened?" I asked.

"She didn't believe me," Jenny answered.

"Authority can be so…" Chowder said. He then began to make fibbing noises with his lips and make armpit sounds. I hid back my laughter, and forgot about the argument between the boys. Jenny stared at him in disgust, we looked back at her as DJ nodded.

"Nonsense," I finished.

"Okay. Normally I don't spend time with guys like you, even with a girl," she said. I crossed my arms and gave her a look. "But a house just tried to eat me, so you've got one hour."

We then heard a barking from outside, we all ran over to the window and looked over to see a friendly dog barking at the house.

"Oh, a puppy," Jenny cooed.

We watched as the dog sniffed around the lawn and walked around in a circle. The house opened its' window covers as if they were eyelids, and noticed the dog standing on the grass.

"Oh no," I muttered. "Please don't go on the lawn."

"Uh oh!" Chowder cried.

The lids went down as if they were glaring as the dog got into a position to go to the bathroom. The house closed its' eyelids and stuck out its' carpet tongue and grabbed the poor dog, yanking him into the door as he yelped. It was like a frog catching a fly with its' slimy tongue. We all stared at the house in horror, I gasped as my eyes widened behind my lenses. I felt tingly all over my skin, turning my blood cold.

"Didn't see that coming," Chowder said out of nowhere.

"Okay..." Jenny said as she looked at us. "I think it's time to call the police.

She then dialed again for the police and I sighed. This is going to get interesting, and something tells me that the police won't listen.


	6. Calling the Cops

After calling the cops, the four of us went outside, walked across the street and looked at the house.

"Do you realize what's gonna happen tonight?" Jenny said.

"Hundreds of kids walking right up to that house," DJ added.

"And get eaten up like Halloween candy," I finished. "I have a feeling those cops are not going to believe us."

"Wait, wait, wait. Come on. Guys, I think we're overreacting. I mean, think about it. Only a total moron would walk up to old man Nebbercracker's house," Chowder said.

We heard a creaking as the door flew up and there came a bouncing sound as a basketball ball bounced up and down the steps and landed on the walkway near the door.

"Hey, my ball," the blond cried. Before he could get it, DJ and I grabbed his arms.

"Chowder, no," DJ warned.

"Don't get tricked by the house," I said.

We watched as a porch step bounced the ball and wacked it a few times creating a face on it, like a jack-o-lantern. I gulped down the lump in my throat at the sight of it.

"It's gonna be a bloodbath," he muttered.

Then a loud siren blared, and the ball hopped back into the house, with the door closing it. We all turned around to see a police car pulling up to us.

"Good news, the cops are here," Jenny said.

"Well, Jenny, you don't have to announce it already," I mumbled rolling my eyes.

There were two cops in the car, one was plump and another was skinny with dark skin, with a nervous look on his face.

"All right, kids, this better be good. I was in the forest wrestling with a bear claw when we got the call," The officer said seriously. He laughed and cleared his throat. "I was eating a doughnut."

Then the skinny cop grabbed a caller and the alarm blared so loudly and I had to cover my ears along with DJ, Chowder, and Jenny. I get so sensitive to loud sounds, so it was too much for me.

"All four of you, step to the car now," he shouted.

"Please turn it off!" I cried. "I can't stand loud noises!"

"They're at the car," Officer Landers said and turned to us. "He's a rookie. First week on the job."

"Well that makes sense," I muttered crossing my arms.

"Officer, we have reason to believe there's a dangerous creature inside that house," Jenny explained.

"It may have killed a man," DJ said.

"And a dog," Chowder added.

"It looks like some ghost is possessing it," I said. "Making things look more spooky."

"Doggy down?" the skinny cop, named Lester said, he grabbed the speaker to call for backup. "We've got a situation. We've got a situation."

"What are you doing?" Officer Landers snapped as he grabbed the speaker from Lester.

"Calling for backup," he said. "Didn't you hear what the kid said? There's a dangerous creature inside that house."

"We don't have backup," the Officer snapped. "It's just Judy at the station and this is no situation. It's just a couple Tater Tots hopped up on too many Pixy Stix."

"I bet you the dead dog would beg to differ," Lester muttered.

"What was that?" The officer shouted.

"Nothing," he said meekly with wide eyes looking around uneasily.

Officer Landers turned back to us and gave us a look.

"All right. Time's up, peewees. It's Halloween and believe it or not, we got things to do."

"We do?"

"No, wait, you can't," DJ cried. "All right, this thing, it has a mouth..."

Chowder opened his mouth wide and pointed his finger to it. DJ even made hand movements to describe the house.

"And it comes out and grabs things and pulls them in and eats them."

"Yeah, like this," Chowder made weird movements and more of his growls and weird faces.

"Okay, okay, okay. The thing is..." Jenny said shutting up the boys and turned back to the cops. "We're trying to make this sound more real than it normally would."

"Hmmm, problem is it sounds kind of not real," the Officer said. "So we'll see you later."

Before he could drive away, DJ decided to step in to prove the house is alive.

"All right. I'll show you," DJ said backing up into the lawn. "But if things get out of hand..."

"We'll aim for Bigfoot," Officer Landers laughed hoarsely as the rookie pulled out a gun. The officer then confiscated the gun from Lester and yelled, "That's loaded."

I looked back over towards Nebbercracker's house, and watched as DJ jumped up and down on the lawn, trying to get the house to move. He crouched, turned back to us, and continued to hop.

"He's hopping," The cops laughed thinking DJ was acting funny. As I stared at the house, it did not move or open its' window shades. It looks like the house is acting like a real one with no ghost possessing it. I guess the house is no dumb after all.

"Smart house," Jenny said sarcastically.

"Yeah, you're right Jenny," I agreed. "The house just knows how to blend in."

I looked over and my eyes widened. Chowder picked up a nearby rock and threw it towards the house to get it mad.

"Chowder no!" I cried.

"Hey! You! Both of you, come here. Bring it to the car, come one," Officer Landers shouted. The four of us all put our hands up in the air. He began to reprimand DJ and Chowder, even Jenny and I. I knew exactly what was coming.

"I'm gonna forget you throwing that rock because that dance was pretty funny. But next time any of you mess with this guy's house, all four of you are going in the hole, you got it? Now, I'll give you ten seconds to march."

"But we need your help," Jenny cried. "It's your job to help us."

Chowder nodded with her, and the cops were not buying it.

"One," the Officer began to count down, so we obeyed him and walked in front of his car.

"Two. Three. Four. Five."

As we walked to the front, the police car began to drive and hit Chowder in the butt, causing him to wince.

"That's tender."

"My house is right over there," DJ said warily.

We kept walking in front of the car as it slowly drove with the siren blaring. Well, that didn't go well.

"So much for relying on the government," Jenny said in bitter sarcasm.

"I told you they'd never believe us," I stated.

"Yeah, I know. I hate the government," Chowder said. He then turned to DJ.

"Dude, we're screwed."

"No, we're not. We'll go to an expert," DJ said and got another idea.


	7. Thou Art Dead Champion

After the cops left, the four of us walked over to the town in Mayville to a less popular diner. Which also happened to be a pizza restaurant too. We entered the building, which was completely empty, except for one overweight guy with dark hair, restaurant uniform attire playing an arcade game making weird movements and sounds.

"You're looking at the three time tri-state over fourteen _Thou Art Dead_ champion. His name is Reginald Skulinski. But they call him Skull," DJ explained to Jenny.

"Who's ''they''?" Jenny asked.

"Me, Sally and DJ," Chowder said placing his arm on her shoulder.

"Yeah," DJ nodded.

"He's the smartest guy on earth," the blond said.

"Even a really big video game addict," I said.

"So let's go talk to him," Jenny said. She started to walk up to Skull, but we had to stop her. DJ and Chowder got up in the front to block her.

"Hey, Jenny, Jenny," Chowder said.

"Hey, Jenny, Jenny, hold on. Hold up," DJ said.

"No, no, Jenny," I said.

"Skull is in the game zone right now. And you don't wanna mess with him when he's in the game zone," Chowder explained.

"He doesn't like interruptions, with his game," I added.

"Fine, so how long is he gonna be playing?" Jenny complained.

We looked back to see Skull muttering gibberish as he continued playing the arcade game.

"Who knows? He once played for four days straight, on one quarter, a gallon of chocolate milk and an adult diaper," Chowder said.

"The man's a legend," DJ agreed.

"Well, if he's not coming out of the game zone, then we are going in," Jenny smirked as she pushed the boys towards the guy.

The boys try to protest, but she continued to push them towards the game champ, I just stood there, hiding my jealousy away. She then came back and took my hand. The moment she grabbed mine, I felt suddenly strange. Am I getting sympathetic with the redhead?

"Don't be shy, Sally," she said.

"All right," I said. She pulled me towards Skull as he continuously played his game. He was muttering at his successes of the character defeating live skeletons and monsters that keep popping out of nowhere.

"It's like you're not gonna. You're not gonna do it. Like- You're gonna die. You're gonna die. Watch out. Did you see that? I just chopped off your head again. Your head's rolling. You can't see it, your eyes are on your head."

I was wondering if Skull was either talking to himself or to us. DJ stepped forward.

"Sir?"

Skull turned to us looking displeased.

"What? I'm busy playing a video game without even looking at the screen. What?" he then shouted as he continued playing.

"Okay, Old Man Nebbercracker's house is possessed. I need to know how to destroy it before it kills people," DJ spoke quickly.

"Calm down. You make me wanna throw up in some tinfoil and eat it," Skull snapped.

"Well that was rude," I muttered crossing my arms as Jenny gasped.

"Oh, you like the steel of my blade?" the guy muttered as the hero began battling a dragon with it's stomach opening with saliva drooling with a long tongue shooting out fireballs. I grimaced at the sight.

"It's so cold," he then finished a level and cheered. He then turned to us. "Possessed house, you say?"

"Yes, it's a house kind of possessed by a ghost, like _Poltergeist,"_ I said. Skull turned back to his game to play another level and then he spoke to us.

"In my travels to the video store and comic-book conventions, I've seen many strange and wondrous things. And I've heard tell of man-made structures becoming possessed by a human soul so that the spirit becomes merged with wood and brick creating a rare form of monster known as Domus mactabilis," he exclaimed making hand gestures and a hissing sound. We all looked at each as it was beginning to make a lot of sense. Only one person could possess the house.

"The house is Mr. Nebbercracker," DJ said.

"We're its murderous enemies," Chowder added with a frightened look in his blue eyes. We turned back to Skull as he continued playing.

"Have fun getting killed," he said.

"Run, coward," a voice from the game said. We looked in and it was really disturbing to see the hero slaying so many skeletons with blood fountains. "Look at that blood."

"So how do we kill it?" DJ asked.

"You've gotta strike at the source of life, the heart," Skull said beating his chest.

"But houses don't have hearts," the dark-haired boy said.

"Yes! Oh, yeah!" the guy cheered as more music played in the game with a victory dance.

"Oh yeah. You might be right about that," he said punching DJ in the shoulder. He then heard a beeping, and grabbed a phone from his pocket. It must be a delivery alert.

"Sorry, children, but I've got some very important business to take care of. I won't be seeing you later," he said. He grabbed a pizza box and was about to head out. He then stopped almost throwing up, turned back towards us, and grabbed a candy bar out of Chowder's hand. He chewed on it, and ran out of the diner.

"Thou art dead!" we turned back to see the Grim Reaper laughing evilly repeating the line. Hearing that evil laughter, made my spine shiver in fear.

* * *

We left the pizza diner and continued our half an hour walk through town and head back to the neighborhood. As we continued to walk back DJ's house, and we all discussed on a plan to stop the monster house, on how we are going to get inside and find the heart.

Jenny spoke up as soon as we reached DJ's house, "So we need to strike at the heart."

"Yeah, but where are we gonna find a heart inside a house?" Chowder asked.

We looked back at the old house and I remembered that there was smoke billowing from the chimney. When Nebbercracker was alive, he never lit his fireplace, and now that he's gone, the smoke came up by itself.

"Have you guys noticed anything different about the house?" I asked.

"Ever since Nebbercracker died there's been smoke coming out of that chimney," DJ said.

"Oh yeah, I remembered seeing the smoke, and that could mean one thing," I said.

* * *

We gathered around the kitchen table to discuss a plan on how we're going to kill the monster house. DJ drew out a map of his house, the road, and the monster house, Jenny, Chowder, and I looked it over.

"The furnace. The furnace is the heart," Jenny said as she drew the heart in the house. "If we wanna put out the fire, we're gonna have to go inside."

"Without getting chewed to pieces," Chowder added as he drew a figure on the map.

"Yeah, and not let the monster house catch us and gobble us up like Halloween candy," I agreed.

As Chowder finished drawing a figure with a scary mask with bottles, DJ slammed his hand on it and said, "Dummy."

"Hey, I was just doodling," Chowder whined.

"No, Chowder, this is it," DJ said excitedly as he filled in the bottles and drew out the plan. "First, we build a dummy. We fill the dummy with a few gallons of cold medicine. You could borrow it from your dad's pharmacy."

"Say what?" Chowder grew worried.

"Feed the dummy to the house, house eats the medicine, goes to sleep."

"Yeah, it'll knock the house for a while, I wonder if cold medicine could put a monster house to sleep," I added. "But it'll be easy for us to get it, just like Nebbercracker did."

"Look at this," Chowder complained.

"We get in, douse the fire and get out," DJ concluded.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," Chowder moved his hands up and down.

"What's the matter Chowder?" I asked.

"Questions?"

"Yes, are you nuts? I don't wanna steal drugs from my father. I don't wanna go inside a monster and I don't wanna die," he complained slamming his hand down on the table.

"I say it's worth a shot," Jenny said.

"Yes, I agree, let's do it," Chowder said.

I gave them a look, and we all set out to create gather supplies, weapons, and other stuff to build the dummy. This time, nothing will stand in our way!


	8. Hungry House

Soon, we began to form our plan and grab supplies to create the dummy as bait for the monster house. Chowder went over to the pharmacy to get sleepy cold medicine on DJ's bike. I went through a closet to pull out a broom, a pumpkin candy bucket, and an old college sweater.

I sat in the dining room with Jenny as I was putting some stuffing to create the legs, with old sneakers, and the redhead used a pole and broom to create some sort of staff. Not wanting to keep this silent between us, I decided to speak to her, in order to distract my jealousy.

"So Jenny, are you nervous about going inside the house?"

She looked back at me, as her eyes were filled with concentration, she gave me a soft smile.

"Well, a little bit, I know we just met, and we'll get through with this. You know, your friends maybe weird, but they are something, where did you three meet?"

"I met DJ and Chowder when I was in third grade, and I was always picked on because I wear glasses. Since we're in the same grade, I'm a year younger than them, I'm eleven going on twelve."

"Same here, I'm eleven too," she said.

"Wow, I did not know that," I said with my eyes widened. Jenny came up to me, and she was acting kinder around me. This was really strange.

"So Sally, have you always worn glasses?"

I gave a sigh and took them off, my vision around me became blurry and I cleaned my lenses and out them back on.

"I've worn them since I was five, and I can't see very well without them. When things are far away, I get blurry vision. That makes me near sighted, get headaches, and I can't even see things up close too, it makes me blind as a bat. That's why I always wear them."

"Oh I see," she said. "So you live around here? Did you tell your parents about the house?"

I suddenly frowned when she mentioned my parents. She suddenly realized she brought up a sensitive subject.

"Actually, I haven't seen them in five months, they got divorced. I had to live my grandparents now."

"Oh I'm sorry to hear about your parents," she said sympathetically. "My parents too got divorced when I was five. I've been living with my mom during the school year, and I see my dad during the summer. It was difficult at first, but I managed to get through with it."

"I'm sorry too, I just hope things go back to normal."

Jenny put her hand and my shoulder and gave me a soft smile. I looked back at her green eyes, and I could see kindness within them.

"Don't worry Sally, things will work out all right in the end."

"Thanks Jenny," I said smiling.

The door swung opened as Chowder came in with the cold medicine he got from the pharmacy. He took deep breaths to calm down from the long bike ride.

"Got 'em," he said.

* * *

DJ grabbed a vacuum cleaner from his closet, and pulled it out. He opened the sack where it contained the dirt and dust, causing the remnants to explode. He and Chowder coughed out the dust in disgust.

I placed the college sweater on the vacuum cleaner and Jenny placed a broom through the sleeves to be used as arms. Chowder placed all the bottles of cold medicine in the sweater and zipped up the zipper.

I helped bring in round garbage cans and placed them in the kitchen, DJ, and Jenny used tools to cut off the bottom of the cans so we could get in easily. I went down into the basement and helped Chowder with the extension cords and plugged the long orange cord in. The last thing I put on the dummy was Chowder's scary mask as the face.

Once the dummy was complete, we all went up in DJ's room where he dumped out his toy chest. In there, was a baseball, a glove, and four water guns. I grabbed a water gun that was smaller than the others, and Jenny smiled as she held a big one.

"Hey, but I wanted that one," Chowder whined as his water gun was smaller than Jenny's big one.

"You've gotta be kidding me," she sighed in annoyance as she gave the bigger water gun to the blond boy and took the smaller water gun from him.

"Yes," he grinned.

Soon we were all ready to face our dangerous enemy, Old Man Nebbercracker's spirit of the house. Jenny and Chowder left DJ's room to head downstairs to prepare for the plan. Before I headed out of the room, I looked back to see DJ grabbing four walkie-talkies for all of us, and he stopped. He looked back on his desk and grabbed the key that he found on the lawn.

"DJ, why are you taking the key?"

"Well, incase we need it. I have a feeling that Nebbercracker has been hiding something in his house, and I'm gonna find out."

"Okay, let's go meet up with the others."

* * *

We got outside grabbed the garbage cans with the bottoms cut off, and got in. We slowly walked towards the house with our feet only appearing at the bottom, as Jenny, DJ, and I were in our own. Chowder was behind his, hiding the dummy inside. The more we got closer, the house did not move. No detectible movement.

Chowder hummed a military tune as we continued to sneak up to the house, and we came to a stop at the edge of the sidewalk. I felt my intestines twist into knots as we came closer and closer to the house.

"Shh! Chowder. Quiet!" Jenny whispered.

"Sorry."

I peered from my trashcan with the lid balancing on my head, and I looked over to see DJ peering at the house. Still, there was no detectable movement. He looked at Chowder and gave him the signal.

"Go."

Chowder nervously lifted the lid off his garbage can with the Dummy's head blowing up, with his scary monster mask.

"Whoopsie-daisy," Chowder whispered as he set the dummy onto the ground. He stopped for a moment to see if the house moved, but all that was heard was a creaking.

Chowder pushed the dummy into its' position on the sidewalk that led straight up to the monster house.

"All right, little vacuum-cleaner dummy, I'm gonna move you into position. You don't be scared. That's not how l trained you. I love you, vacuum-cleaner dummy," he whispered. I sighed finding it to be silly for a boy to talk to a dummy, before it becomes bait.

"Chowder, come on," DJ whispered. Chowder slowly crawled away and hid behind his trashcan, and he grabbed the plugs that was going to connect between the extension cord to the vacuum cleaner.

"Okay," he said.

DJ knocked on the lid Jenny was in. She then appeared from the trashcan with the lid balancing on her head, she held a slingshot in her hands with a pebble. She pulled back the band as hard as she could to aim it towards the doorbell. Then she released it and the pebble zoomed towards it and hit the doorbell and it ringed.

"Yes," she whispered excitedly.

"Excellent shot Jenny!" I whispered.

The doorbell echoed inside and the house's eyelids flew opened as it glared at our bait.

"Trick or treat," Chowder called out from behind the trashcan.

"Plug it in," DJ whispered.

The blond boy obeyed and plugged both the cords in. The vacuum cleaner dummy turned on and it started to move towards the house. We all looked nervously to see if the house will eat the dummy.

"Almost there," I whispered as my palms began to sweat in anxiety.

As the dummy moved closer inch by inch, the door swung opened. The teeth emerged and the carpet tongue slowly came out and landed flat on the sidewalk. It seems that the plan was working and nothing was going to get in our way. Just as the monster house was about to eat our dummy, the cops from earlier drove their car blaring the siren, causing the house to act as a normal one. The car snapped our plug in half cutting the power.

"Oh great," I muttered in annoyance.

"So close," DJ agreed.

Officer Landers stepped out from the car and came towards us. He wasn't really happy, and I got extremely nervous.

"Littering, loitering, vandalism, vagrancy…" he said as we came out of the trashcans.

"And treason," Lester added holding his flashlight.

"No, not treason," the officer said rolling his eyes.

"You sure? Because in the book…"

"I'm sure," he snapped and turned to us. "All right, kids, out of the trashcans. Let's go."

We obeyed and went towards him silently, with Lester being a nagging stupid head. We had our water guns with us, and thoughts of disappointment.

"Come on. You heard the big guy. You see the light. Walk towards it. Come on, keep it moving, all right, drop your weapons," he said. "Pass them to me. Come on."

We all glared at him and threw our water guns down, making the skinny cop jump.

"I will shoot you," he warned. I blew a small raspberry at him as Chowder held us his hands.

"Well, lookie we got here," Officer Landers said noticing the cord and looked at us. "You stay here, I'm checking this out."

"I am on it!" Lester exclaimed.

We all looked over in shame as the officer followed the cord that led up to our vacuum cleaner dummy. He jumped back as he saw it, and he pulled out his club and touched the mask, realizing it was not a real person. The mask came off and shocked Landers.

"Y'all think something's funny?" Lester asked us, to keep him busy and shone his flashlight in Jenny's eyes. "You testing me? Huh, tough girl?"

Jenny shook her head in annoyance.

"You disrespecting the badge? You don't want none of this. I'm telling you. Test me. Please. Y'all wanna test me? I am the police. I know you're a thug. Them brown eyes... I see it in your eyes."

As my friends listened to Lester, I looked over to see Officer Landers pull out one of the cold medicine bottles. He opened it, and dipped in his finger to taste the medicine and than spit it out in disgust. I then kept watching him as he looked from side to side and drank the whole bottle. I gasped in disgust.

"You have something to say Curly?" he then asked me. I shook my head in shyness.

"That's it. That is it," I looked over to see the Officer coming towards us, infuriated.

"You got something to say, Porky, huh?" Lester asked Chowder.

"That's it, we're taking them in," the Officer said

"That's what I'm talking about," Lester agreed. "Where we taking them?"

"To jail. Let's go."

My friends gasped and the color drained from my face.

"What?" I exclaimed. "Are you serious right now?"

"You hear that?" Lester said taking DJ and Jenny by the arms and escorted them to the police car. "You guys are going to jail."

"But, officer, you've gotta believe us," DJ protested.

"Yeah, yeah, two-percent, you got the right to shut up," Lester said as he pushed DJ into the car.

"Okay, the house is a monster," Jenny added.

"And to think I believed you," the skinny cop said pushing her in as she winced in pain.

"You're a bunch of blockheads you know that?" I said snarky.

"And to think four eyes, is really the blockhead," he said pushing me in.

At the mention of four eyes, I got extremely offended and I turned to him angrily.

"Don't you talk to me that way! It's not my fault I'm near-sighted, Skinny!"

"Well, it ain't my fault I called you that!"

As I groaned in frustration, Chowder was the last to get in, and he tried to talk his way out of it.

"Hey, listen, I'm with you guys. My cousin's a cop in Milwaukee. I mean, kind of a cop," he said. "He has a gun."

"Yeah. They're gonna love you downtown, Jughead," Officer Landers said as Lester pushed him in. He gave us our water guns and closed the door.

"We are supercops," Lester said excitedly and went around to get in the car.

"Yeah. That's why I live in a condo," Officers Landers muttered.

"Supercop. Super-duper-duper-cop. Super…" Lester muttered as he and the Chief were about to get into the car. Then there was a sound in the house and it caught their attention.

"You hear that?" Lester asked.

"That's my stomach. I'm starving," the Officer said.

"No, no. That sounds like the dangerous creature. I'm gonna go check it out." Lester then pranced over to the house, in a stupid way as the Officer got annoyed.

"Oh, my gosh. This is like trying to wrangle a puppy," he closed the door on us. "All right, I'll be back."

As he left, we tried to call them through the window to warn them, but they didn't listen. They were then getting close to the house, and it was really, really, bad!

"No, guys stop!" DJ cried.

"No. Get out of there," Jenny cried.

"No, don't go in there," Chowder exclaimed.

"Get away from that house!" I shouted.

The police then came up to the porch as Lester leaned next to the door with his gun in his hands. He made gesturing moments to the officer.

"What?" Officer Landers asked.

The skinny cop then shushed him. "I tell you," he then jumped off the porch and rolled over the lawn. "Super-roll."

We kept calling out to the cops, and they didn't hear us, and Lester continued to look around the trees.

"Stop. Stop," Chowder screamed.

"Hey. Hey. Come on," Jenny added.

"You don't know what's up with that house," DJ called.

"Run before it eats you!" I cried.

The Officer then heard a loud creaking noise coming from inside the house and it got his attention. He then walked off the porch to investigate more.

"Where you at, spooky creature?" Lester said in a sing-song voice. "I'm gonna find you."

He then noticed the weird movement underneath the grass coming towards him. He jumped in fright and it missed him. He held up his gun and flashlight and pointed it towards the tree.

"Freeze… tree."

As he slowly came towards it, a tree branch then grabbed his gun, yanking it from his hand.

"Hey, what you doing?" Lester cried as he tried to run away. "You can't do that. Not to an officer, brother. That is illegal."

The tree reached out towards Lester and grabbed him flinging him up in the air. We all screamed in horror that the house also possesses the trees. My heart started to beat in my throat, and sweat was building up in my bangs.

"NOOOOOO!" We all cried.

Officer Landers heard Lester's cries of distress.

"I'm coming, buddy," he ran over to see the tree tossing up Lester and held him by the leg in one of its' branches.

"Put me down!"

"I'm gonna go get backup!"

"I thought there was no backup!"

"I'm getting Judy," Officer Landers tried to run, but the carpet tongue flew out and caught him. He landed on the ground as he clutched onto the grass and yelled as he was pulled in. "Judy!"

We all gasped as the house ate the officer and then we looked up to see the tree throwing Lester into its' mouth.

"Help! Mama!" he called as he got devoured.

I never felt so scared in my life and I ducked down in the car with my friends, and my heart was starting to beat faster and faster. I looked over to see the Monster House back in its' original state.

"Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God. I think I'm having a stroke," Chowder cried panicking.

"Just try to stay calm, okay? We'll be all right if we just stay calm," Jenny said.

Suddenly one of the trees grabbed the police car and crushed us. We all screamed in horror as we almost got squished and glass broke from the back windshield. The tree lifted the car up from the ground, causing us to scream in horror as the house turned back into a monster and roared fiercely.

"I'm too young to die!" Chowder screamed.

"Oh God, we're doomed!" I screamed.

The tree passed us to another tree, as we came towards the large gaping mouth of the house. It started to bite into the car, eating up the front, and chewed it up.

"Jenny. I've always loved you," Chowder cried. I then gasped in horror as we were near the teeth, and hearing my crush confessing his love to Jenny. We all screamed as the car was bitten in half with the front seat and cage going towards the glowing green hole in the floor and pulled it down grinding it.

"Chowder!"

"Sorry. Mama! I can't look!"

Oh. Well, I guess, Jenny wasn't interested in Chowder at all. The carpet tongue then grabbed the other half of the car we were in and pulled us towards the hole. If we took a tip forward, we'll all go down its' wooden splintering throat!

"Guys, come on. Let's go," DJ cried.

We all escaped through the back windshield tried to run back to the entrance. But the teeth disappeared and the door slammed on us, blocking our escape! Shutting us into the deep pitch darkness.


	9. Inside the House and Horrifying Secrets

We all stood in the darkness of the room, and we grabbed our water guns that had flashlights taped to them and turned them on. We could hear the house repairing itself from the outside into its' normal state. We all turned around to watch the foyer room turn back to normal with the carpet tongue lying on the curving staircase, and the floor repaired itself, closing the hole.

Everything was silent, very, very silent. We were in Old Man Nebbercracker's house. My friends all tried to stay calm, but they were all scared.

"We're dead! You've killed us and now we're dead!" Chowder cried.

"Shhhh! I don't think the house knows that we're in here," DJ said. "I bet it thinks we're still in the car."

"Listen!" Jenny added. "Sounds like it's sleeping."

We all stood still as statues and listened to the rumbling through the house and it was like the sound of a person breathing in and out.

"How are we gonna get out of here?" I asked as I clutched my water gun and shone my flashlight.

"The only way that we're gonna get out of here alive, is if we find the heart, and we put out the fire." DJ said shining his flashlight over the room.

"Maybe we should examine our other options?" Chowder suggested, feeling more scared.

"Sure! Other option!" DJ snapped turning around with his light blinding Chowder as he backed up on the door. "We wait here and do nothing until it wakes up and eats us."

"Find the heart, put out the fire. Got it," Chowder stated.

We all started to look around the house, and it sent shivers down my spine as I slowly walked with my sneakers creaking on the floor. My stomach began to crumple up into a ball of paper as it began to gnaw inside me. I looked over as Chowder shone his light on an odd looking stack of chairs and on the tool table were huge red boxes of dynamite. It was just like in the movie _Poltergeist_.

"Explosives! It's so cool!" Chowder exclaimed.

I looked over to see Jenny slowly walking around as her Mary Jane shoes slowly clicked on the wooden floor. I started to shake all over as the house was starting to give me the creeps. I then turned to see DJ come over to see a pair of binoculars being held by a wavelength spring. He pushed them over to the door and his eyes widened in shock.

"He was watching me!"

"DJ," Jenny whispered. We came over to see her standing near a wall with pictures hanging up, of Nebbercracker and his late wife. One was of their wedding day, the beach, a fair, and them kissing. "Did you ever see a wife?"

"People use to say he had one… but he fattened her up… and he ate her."

"Ew!"

We looked over at another photograph, and it was of young Nebbercracker with his buddies surrounded by dynamite, bombs, and lighters. It was from his younger days when he was in the army.

"Demolition squad," DJ said, reading the sign on the picture. Then someone in the photograph caught my eye. Underneath the photograph was a list of names until one I noticed one, _Steven McGiverns_.

"Hold it, I know this guy!" I pointed to the man that was sitting in a chair in a helmet next to Nebbercracker in the picture holding a lighter. "It's Grandpa! I didn't know he was friends with Nebbercracker?"

"Wait, you mean your Grandpa knows Nebbercracker?" Jenny asked.

"Well, technically no, but I have seen pictures of him and Grandma when they were younger," I explained. "But never this one."

I spotted another picture, and saw Nebbercracker as a young boy with a young girl around his age, standing next to him smiling. I looked at the names underneath, and by the girl was her name, 'Patricia Nebbercracker.'

Patricia? That's my grandmother's name. The strangest thing I ever saw, was that this girl looked a lot like me, she had dark curly hair in a low ponytail, and her eyes were similar to mine.

"Hmm, that girl looks very familiar," I muttered. As I took a closer look at her, there came a loud sound of furniture falling, I held in my scream as I jumped. I turned back with DJ and Jenny to see it was only Chowder, and knocked down a few items.

"Sorry," he whispered sheepishly.

"Come on," DJ said.

We all continued to investigate around the foyer, as I clutched my water gun making light footsteps. Behind Jenny and I, Chowder was running, making loud clonking footsteps.

 _Seriously Chowder? You're gonna wake up the house!_ I thought.

"Be quiet," Jenny hissed.

"Don't make loud sounds Chowder," I said, giving him a glare.

"Don't worry, I have a very light step," he reassured us.

I rolled my eyes with a sigh along with Jenny as we continued to look around the house. My flashlight followed Chowder's light as it floated around, hearing the tinkling of crystal and bells. Chowder and I shone our lights toward an object that was dangling from the ceiling. It was a chandelier with a net of chains holding a bunch of red glass lanterns.

"There. Right there. Shoot it!" Chowder exclaimed.

"The heart!" I added.

We then started to squirt water from our water guns at the heart, and it started to glow with a bright red color. As we kept squirting, the floor beneath our feet opened up the throat and we all stepped back. We pressed our backs against the wall, and water from the basement rose up to the surface, and a gush of it leaped out through the opened door and slammed shut.

A blinding light then shone through the window, it moved around as a spotlight from the stage looking for prey. DJ shushed as Chowder gave a whimper. I swallowed back the large lump in my throat as I felt goose bumps forming over my skin. The light examined over the carpet tongue, and quickly moved to us. We ducked out of the way, before it could catch us. We all stood against the wall petrified as the light shone over the clinking chandelier, and it seems to not notice us.

"What? I thought if I shot the heart, that…" Chowder spoke up

"That's not the heart," Jenny interrupted.

"Then what is it?"

"Well, if those are the teeth, and that's the tongue… then that must be the uvula," she said as she looked over at the door, carpet, and chandelier.

 _Well that makes sense!_ I thought. The clump of lanterns sure does look like a uvula.

"And the windows, must be the eyes," I added. "They say that eyes are windows to the soul."

"Oh, so it's a girl house."

I gave him a dirty look, thinking the uvula is a private part. Where did he hear all that nonsense?

"What?" Jenny was offended. "No. It stimulates the gag reflex. Everyone has a uvula."

"Not me," he said.

DJ shushed us, and we watched the floorboards closing up, the carpet tongue laid itself on the staircase and the window light went out. The house went back to sleep. DJ slowly moved his foot on the floor, with only a creaking on the floor.

"No," Chowder whispered. No detectible movement was made.

The dark haired boy shone his flashlight to the window, and it was all still and quiet. He turned to us, and beckoned us to follow him.

"Okay. Let's move," He said. We then begin to follow him in a line as we shone our lights. "We need to move quickly and quietly. Don't touch anything. And stay together…"

Suddenly the floor beneath DJ's feet broke, causing him to fall and scream in the dark pit. I gasped in horror, thinking the house is awake!

"DJ!" Jenny cried as she tried to save him.

"Wait!" Chowder cried.

He rushed over towards Jenny and accidentally pushed her into the whole and they all screamed falling down! My heart began to race!

"Guys!" I screamed.

Without thinking, I jumped down after them! After realizing what I did, I started to scream in horror. My skin and face went really numb from the fall, causing me to think I was going to die! I closed my eyes and let God chose my fate, and then I landed roughly on a huge pile, instantly hitting my head, I blacked out after that.

* * *

I woke up a few minutes later, with my head throbbing from the fall. I slowly sat up and looked around. My vision around me became very blurry and I realized I lost my glasses.

"Guys?" I called. I slowly stood up, but I toppled over a pile and landed on the ground. Even if I can't see anything, being in the dark made it a whole lot worse. My skin turned cold.

"I'll save you," I heard Chowder groaning.

I looked over, and all I could see was his large blurry body lying right on his back with his light near him. I slowly start to crawl over with objects on the ground touching my feet. I looked over to see blurry Jenny getting up and was dusting her self from the unexpected fall.

"Chowder? Jenny? DJ?" I called.

"Sally," Jenny said.

When Chowder heard a toppling of items, he screamed and started to squirt at Jenny, soaking her shirt.

"Chowder, knock it off," the redhead said, drily.

"Sorry," Chowder said. "I thought you were… DJ!"

He jumped at the sound and started to squirt at the item. I tried to make it out as a monkey with cymbals.

"Chowder, it's a toy," Jenny said.

"Oh, yeah."

Not wanting to stand around here anymore, I had to find my glasses.

"Hey guys? Have you seen my glasses? I'm blind as a bat!"

I heard my friends looking through the items and I saw my blurry flashlight, and I got on my knees to slowly crawl. I didn't want to step on my glasses and break them like that kid did in that Christmas movie for shooting his eye out.

"Here, I found them!"

Jenny came up to me with my glasses, and I gingerly took them from her. I put them back on my vision became clear around me.

"Thanks Jenny," I said smiling to her for the first time.

"No problem," she said, doing the same.

I looked over and grabbed my water gun, with my light still flashing. We were in the basement with thousands of pipes winding over our heads with brick pillars. We were all together, except for DJ.

"Where's DJ?" Jenny asked.

"I don't know," I said, and I shone my light around the room. "DJ, where are you?"

"DJ!" Jenny called.

"Over here!" he called as when shined our flashlights to him. He was standing in front of barred gates of a cage. As we came towards him, we looked around and moved our lights around the room. As if it was something I did not noticed after seeing again, it gave me a huge surprise. The basement was stocked with millions and millions of toys.

"Wow, look at all these toys," Chowder said.

"This must be where Nebbercracker kept his stash," Jenny said.

"Stash," Chowder chuckled.

"Well, more likely where he keeps all the confiscated items he takes away from the kids that lands on his lawn," I added. "Maybe my doll is here."

"I think you guys should have a look at this." DJ said, and beckoned us to come over. When we reached DJ, we were at the barred cage with chains and a lock, with wheels on the ground. He shined his flashlight on the sign that seemed to be from a circus above as he whispered the title, "Constance, the Giantess."

"Constance? That's her name?" I asked.

DJ looked at the heart-shaped lock, and grabbed it, as he examined the lock, he touched the cover and it flipped. He jumped back, and saw a keyhole.

"The key!" DJ exclaimed and he pulled it out from his pocket.

"Come on DJ, we don't have time for this." Jenny said.

"Yeah, we've gotta find a way out of here." Chowder added.

DJ ignored us and placed the key in the lock and unlocked it. The lock fell off with the chains rattling on the ground. Whatever was in their must be interesting and horrifying at the same time.

"What are you doing?" Chowder asked.

DJ was determined to know and he opened the gates as they were dragged heavily across on the ground. The sound made myself shiver as more fear was growing in my heart.

"Let's just take a quick peek in there and escape!" I said.

We all entered in the dark room with our water guns and flashlights, with ice coursing through my blood.

"We have a Ping-Pong table in our basement," Chowder added.

We looked around the cage and we shined our flashlights down and we gasped in fright. Lying on the hard floor was a large woman encased in concrete, as if she were a statue. Is that her?

"Constance!" cried DJ.

"Holy moly! He really did eat her!" Chowder exclaimed.

"But if he ate her, why is her body here?" I asked. "He could've thrown out her remains."

"Couldn't have. Her whole body is buried in cement," DJ said.

We shined our lights to notice that many items surrounded Constance's body: heart-shaped candy boxes, candles, photographs, and flowers. That was really strange. Did Nebbercracker really love his wife?

"Look at all this stuff," Jenny said. "Why would he build her a shrine if he murdered her?"

"Maybe he just felt guilty or something…" said Chowder. "DJ, can we please get out of here?"

DJ shushed him, and he slowly took more steps as he stared at Constance.

"I always knew you were hiding something, Mr. Nebbercracker," he said.

As DJ leaned in to look closely, he accidentally tripped and landed on top of Constance and stared at her with his nose touching her nose.

"DJ!" Jenny cried.

DJ screamed as he and the cement on the giantess began to crack. Chowder, Jenny, and I pulled him up as we tried to calm him down. I stared at the body in horror.

"Way to go Big Nose!" Chowder snapped.

"Oh my God!" I screamed.

The cement crumbled revealing a gigantic skeleton and it terrified me so much, I felt faint. We backed up in fear as a green fog emerged from the skeleton. The house began to rumble as a brick fell from the ceiling and almost landed on my skull. We all looked up in fright.

"It's awake!" Jenny cried.

"Run!" DJ cried.


	10. Nature's Emergency Exit

We rushed out from the shrine to get out of the basement, but the pipes parted away from the ceiling to reveal the light from the eyes, causing us to stop. It shone right on us, and my knees began to cock against each other.

"Hide," Jenny said.

We all split up to different directions to hide from the light, a pipe swung towards me, and I ducked. I looked around and saw pipes trying to hit DJ, but he ducked. Chowder rushed over and jumped over a pile of toys to hide in. Jenny rushed over to the other side, and the light almost caught her. I hid behind a pile of toys to avoid the light, and I started to tremble as I peered over to watch the light wander off around the room, missing us. Then there was a bouncing sound in the room, as the sound of a giant's footsteps.

"Hey, I know that sound," Chowder said smiling. He crawled over a pile of toys to look for the sound. I slowly walked over to see where Chowder was going and saw a familiar basketball bouncing up and down by it self.

"My ball," Chowder cried. "Where are you going? Come here."

He excitedly crawled over towards his ball, knocking over a few toys. My stomach then twisted into a knot, and I was feeling sick.

"Chowder, come back," DJ whispered.

"Chowder don't!" I warned.

The boy ignored us, as he continued towards his ball. It continued to bounce up and down, up and down.

"You get back here," he said, trying to catch the ball.

"Gotcha," he finally caught his ball, and held it. Dust began to crumble down from the ceiling, and Chowder brushed it off his sleeve. He looked up and saw Slinkys coming down towards him. I gasped in horror.

"Killer Slinkys!"

Chowder screamed as the Slinkys tangled around his body, with the light flashing on him, and then pulled him up through the ceiling, dropping his basketball.

"Chowder!" DJ cried.

We heard a screaming and turned to see Jenny running from a monster pipe, she was then blocked by another pipe that had razor sharp teeth and they cornered her to a wall.

"Leave me alone!" she cried.

Then a large pipe appeared and roared at her, she screamed as it sucked her by the feet pulling in her through to wherever the house is taking her.

"DJ! Sally! Help!"

"Jenny!" I cried.

I quickly rushed over to the other side of the room, and I heard a thudding sound and I looked up seeing a pipe roaring at me. I screamed in horror, as color drained from my face.

"Get away from me!" I cried.

I was then sucked through the pipe head first, as I kept screaming. I zipped through like a ball going through the ways in a pinball machine. I hit certain corners with bruises forming on my shoulders and head. I saw the exit as I toppled out, and it was towards the opened hole in the floor. I rolled over on my head and gripped the splintering wood beams

"Help!" I screamed.

I looked over to see DJ emerging from the doors in the basement and he halted himself, before falling in.

"DJ! Look out!"

I heard another scream as another pipe landed and Jenny landed on her feet, and she balanced herself from falling down into the throat, as her water gun fell in.

"Jenny," DJ cried.

As the redhead regained her balance, I looked over to see Chowder sliding down the carpet tongue from the stairs. My eyes widened in horror as he was falling into the throat, and lost his water gun. He gripped onto the edge and screamed in horror.

"Chowder!" Jenny cried.

DJ rushed over towards Chowder, and tried to grab his other hand. I gasped in fear to watch the boys save each other.

"Come on, Chowder, grab on," he said.

I felt something grabbing my hands and I looked up to see Jenny pulling me up to the floor. I took deep breaths and gave her another quick nod, thanking her. We looked back and watched as DJ grabbed Chowder's wrist.

"Gotcha," he said.

Suddenly the carpet tongue grabbed DJ by the leg and pulled him up in the air swinging him around.

"DJ, look out!" Jenny screamed.

DJ screamed in horror as the carpet tongue threw him down into its' throat and he grabbed Chowder by the ankles, holding on for his life. I gasped in horror as my ribs began to pull in, shrinking my lungs as the air was passing in and out of me.

"DJ!" Jenny and I called.

The light from the windows flashed on us, and we looked up the chandelier.

"The uvula," the redhead said.

The carpet swerved itself up, as a snake and went towards us. Jenny grabbed my hand and we ran past the hole, and jumped up on the tongue, then the stair railing, and leaped over to grab onto the uvula. I jumped on and gripped onto the cold hard chains. Jenny swung it around and gave it a yank down, causing her to fall and I lost my grip and fell after her down the throat.

Jenny grabbed onto DJ's ankles, and I grabbed onto hers. I looked up to see the uvula pulled up towards the ceiling hard, making the hard surface crack. My ankles were suddenly plunged into water, and I looked down to see water rising from below.

"Jenny!" I cried as I was pulled underneath the water with the others.

"DJ!"

"Chowder!"

"Mommy!"

The water rose up and flooded throughout the room. I felt my lungs would explode from holding my breathe, I saw my friends floating in the water as they struggled to swim and hold their breath. Suddenly, the house opened the front door and spewed us out on the lawn with a few of Nebbercracker's objects.

* * *

We all sat up coughing out the water, and I looked back to see the trees slightly moving, but it didn't attack us. I sat up and took off my glasses to clean off the water from the lenses and I put them back on. I began to shiver from the cold air, as I clutched my arms to keep warm. I looked around to see my friends sitting up, they we all soaking wet and covered in dirt.

"Gross," Jenny said.

"Blech," I added, realizing we got barfed by a monster house.

"Did we just get upchucked?" Chowder asked.

"The uvula, nature's emergency exit," Jenny explained.

"Well, that's just disgusting," I said sarcastically.

I looked over to see the house shuddering and was trying to fix it self from barfing us. It did not attack us, and I gave a sigh of relief. We all got up, and want to get over with this trauma.

"That's it," Chowder said, having enough of this. "Another great idea, DJ. Brilliant."

"What do you want from me, Chowder?" DJ asked getting angry. "I don't see you coming up with any big ideas."

"Oh, yeah? Yeah? Do you wanna hear my big idea?" Chowder asked sarcastically, getting angrier by the second. "I'm going home to make a pretzel sandwich. See you."

Chowder stormed off in anger, and I was horrified to see my best friend and crush walking away like a coward. DJ grabbed his wrist to stop him.

"Chowder the house is still alive and you're gonna wuss out?" He shouted making Chowder face him.

"I risked my life for you. I stole drugs for you and I could've died in there!" He shouted pushing DJ.

"Yeah, me too," DJ snapped, and pushed him back.

"Yeah, but you're the one that killed Nebbercracker in the first place!"

"Getting your stupid ball back."

"You guys. Stop fighting," Jenny snapped breaking them up. "You're acting like babies."

"We are babies," DJ agreed.

"No, not babies, you're acting like idiots!" I snapped. "I just had enough of all this fighting and I hate it so much!" And once more, Dustin James, you did not kill Nebbercracker, and was his fault! Why would you not just understand me for once?"

"Well, Sally, I think it's you who's acting like an idiot, all of your outspokenness and nearsightedness, always gets in the way. You're such a pain, Four Eyes, and I think that you always look for trouble, and…."

Without thinking, I stormed up to Chowder, raised my hand, and slapped him in the face as angry hot tears boiled down my face. He flinched back as he grabbed his face as his eyes widened in shock.

"How dare you?" I gasped angrily. "How dare you call me that? Chowder, I thought you cared about me, you and DJ stood up for me, and I should've known it was all a lie. I've got something to say, and I'm gonna say it now!"

I turned over to Jenny, pointed at her and said, "You know something Jenny, ever since you came in, both of the boys have always shown affection and love towards you than me. I grew extremely jealous and developed envy of you, because Chowder loves you, and you don't love him. But I love him!"

Jenny's eyes widened in shock, not realizing, that a shy, quiet and meek girl like me could get extremely jealous because of her success and confidence.

"What were we thinking?" DJ asked. "We tried to put a house to sleep with cold medicine. How lame can you get?"

DJ walked pass through us, and as I predicted, he was giving up, and was going to walk across the street to his house.

"Where are you going?" Chowder asked.

"I'm going home. I suck," DJ said.

As DJ was about to cross the street to his house, there was a loud screeching and flashing lights appeared, coming towards him. It was an ambulance.

"DJ look out!" I screamed.

The ambulance came to a sharp halt, hitting DJ and he landed back on the road, knocked out with the siren blaring. Chowder, Jenny, and I came towards him, really scared that he was killed.

"DJ!" Jenny exclaimed.

"At least it's an ambulance," Chowder said with a worried face. "DJ?"

I went up to DJ and knelt down next to him to see if he was dead. He opened his eyes, gasped, and sat up facing the ambulance that nearly ran him over. DJ backed up and I was about to help him up. Then, the driver's side door swung opened. All we could see was two feet, and they started to come towards us.

My heart leapt into my throat, as it began to tighten up, making it difficult for me to breathe. DJ peered from over the corner of the ambulance, and the feet were getting closer and closer. We kept staring as the figure in a hospital gown, with an arm in sling, came up to us emerging from the dust, and revealed his face in the headlight. He growled at us, with his missing teeth. I gasped and screamed in horror along with DJ.

It was Nebbercracker!

He continued to growl at us, and I jumped back to my feet, and wanted to bolt away from this mad man! My feet stood glued to the pavement, and suddenly he was getting hit from behind.

"It's a ghost!" Chowder shouted. He started to throw rocks at the old man thinking he was back from the dead. "Be gone. Fie."

"Be gone yourself. Get away!" Nebbercracker snapped at them. He walked passed us to go into his house.

"Nebbercracker? You're alive?" I finally spoke up.

"He's not a ghost," DJ said excitedly. "He's not dead. I'm not a murderer."

"See, I told you it wasn't your fault," I said snorting, crossing my arms.

"Of course I'm not dead. Who said I was dead?" Nebbercracker asked. "You'll be dead if you don't scram!"

His shouting caused us to flinch and brought back the memory of the day I lost Lizzie. I trembled all over from his shouting, and I clutched onto Chowder and we backed up towards DJ's house.

"Come on, DJ," Chowder screamed.

"Let's hurry," Jenny cried.

Nebbercracker's hard glare turned into concern as he looked at us, thinking he forgot something.

"Don't you know what day this is?" he asked.

"Well, it's October 31st," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

He looked over in the left direction and noticed a group of kids dressed in costumes coming down the street. It was the trick-or-treaters beaming excitedly to get some candy.

"I'm running out of time. I'm running out of time," I heard him mutter. He then turned towards the Monster House and his voice went from cold to warm, which none of us have ever seen him do before. "Honey… I'm home."

We watched as the house started to open and close the door, the shingles on the roof made waves, the trees slowly started to move. As the old man got closer to the house, its' glare turned into a gentle face, and it looked very happy.

"Oh, look at you, dear. Your shingles are all ruffled and your windows are cracked," he said sweetly as he kept walking towards it. He then stopped and touched his box of explosives. The house growled, and glared at the old man and he stopped. "Oh, but it's no problem, sweetheart. It's no problem at all."

We all continued to stare at the moment between the monster house and the old man, a spark lit in my brain. It all made sense. The house is his wife. It's Constance.

"It's her. The house is her," DJ said.

DJ ran towards Mr. Nebbercracker, and I got extremely scared that the man would attack him again. Jenny, Chowder, and I tried to keep him away from the man.

"DJ, what are you doing?" Jenny cried.

"Wait. Come on," Chowder added.

"Come back."

"Where you going?"

"Get out of here DJ!" I cried.

I came after him and watched as the house growled at us, while Nebbercracker tried to calm her down.

"Nothing paint and varnish can't handle," he continued to say to the house.

"Mr. Nebbercracker," DJ called. He turned back to the boy giving him a glare as the house glared. "I know about Constance."

"You what?" Nebbercracker exclaimed not believing him. "What do you know? You don't know anything."

DJ's face turned to fear as he tried to explain. Nebbercracker then came to realize that we were inside his house and know everything. He glared at DJ as the house continued to growl.

"You were in my house? You…"

Before the old man could attack him, DJ stopped him with both hands, preventing him from attacking. Nebbercracker's face turned from anger to worry as if the secret was going to come out. I came up next to DJ and gave the old man a straight face.

"No more harsh words or rants, tell us the truth about Constance," I said firmly.

"You didn't kill her? Did you?" DJ asked.

Nebbercracker smiled, shook his head and said, "I love her so much."


	11. Constance's Story

_Flashback_

 _Young Nebbercracker was sitting with his demolition squad in the audience at a circus with his hands resting on his face as the crowd around him was laughing and yelling. He sighed in content as he saw the curtain of a large woman, eating a cake, with weight, "675" pounds, and her name, Constance._

 _The curtains parted to show a large, obese woman in a tight green dress with white leaf patterns, with her dark hair in two buns, sitting on a stool in the center of a ring. She giggled as she gestured her hands for attention. Then a tomato was thrown towards her shoulder and she gasped. She got up from her stool and angrily screamed towards the audience, as a child threw another tomato. The audience all laughed at Constance as she landed on the ground in despair, as she was at the edge of crying._

 _Later that night, Constance was resting up in her cage after the humiliating performance. Due to her height and weight, the circus performers despised her, and the manager made her live in a cage. She was sad and miserable all the time, and believed that her days of sadness would never end._

" _Hello?" a male voice said._

 _Constance gasped and looked up to see Nebbercracker approaching her cage. She feared that this man wanted to hurt her, but instead he smiled compassionately at her. Despite their first meeting, Nebbercracker fell in love with her and wanted her as his wife._

" _It's okay," he said gently. "I can take you away from here. Would you like that?_

 _Constance thought for a moment of this offer, and came to realize that if this kind man takes her away from the cruel circus, she could restart a new happier life. This man would be worth of protecting her, and loving her also._

" _Yes," she said nodding, and smiled for the first time in real joy._

 _Nebbercracker drove his pickup truck towards the cage, feeling happy that he found his first love._

" _There we go," he said, hitching the wagon to his car. " Won't be long now."_

 _He drove away with Constance in tow from the dark night, far, far, away from the circus. The giantess laughed happily, feeling free for the very first time. In a few weeks, the two got married, and spend their honeymoon, with Nebbercracker giving Constance very happy times in her life._

 _Soon after celebrating their marriage, Nebbercracker took his wife to an empty field with a 'for sale' sign, now saying 'sold' on it, and two rows of budding trees. He led her out of the cage with her eyes closed and he held her huge hand into this small one to guide her to the surprise._

" _All right," he said, as he led her, and then stopped. "Okay, open your eyes."_

 _Constance opened her brown eyes, and she gasped in surprise. She was feeling happy, to see the spot where they will build their new house, and possibly start a family._

" _Now, it's not much, I know, but just…" as Nebbercracker tried to explain, Constance lifted up her husband and carried him in her arms in gratefulness towards their new spot._

" _Darling," she said._

 _Nebbercracker chuckled at that, and he loved his wife very much. Soon, construction on the house began as the basement was dug up, with a second floor as a room, and a staircase. Unfortunately their happiness would come to an end, very soon on that fateful day._

* * *

 _One day, in 1961 Constance came out from second floor room noticing that rocks were being thrown towards her and her house. She despised people that picked on her, and the ones she hated the most were children. They, along with grown-ups would throw rocks and eggs at her, and hurled insults on her appearence._

" _Get away from my house!" She shouted as she walked down the stairs, shaking her fists. "I'm gonna rip them to bits."_

 _Meanwhile, Nebbercracker was busy chopping up Constance's cage with an axe to use it for furniture as part of the house, and he heard his wife crying for help on the other side. He rushed towards her in concern, as she did the same thing, rushing towards her husband._

" _Constance. What's wrong? Are you hurt?" he asked._

" _Hurt? Yes, I'm hurt!" Constance said angrily as she reached to her husband. "Those criminals are attacking our house!"_

 _She pointed over to two young boys who were hiding behind bushes, dressed in costumes. They were causing mischief around the Nebbercrackers and took in good pleasure to pick on Constance_

" _Trick or treat," a fat kid in a plaid shirt said._

" _Now, now...," Nebbercracker tried to reason with his wife and calm her down. "They're just kids, dear. It's Halloween."_

" _No, no, no. It's my house, and they're hurting me!" Constance cried as she glared and gestured her hands angrily at the boys._

" _Constance, look at me. Look at me," Nebbercracker raised his voice firmly, and made his wife face him and looked at her with promising eyes. "As long as I'm here, I will never let anyone hurt you."_

 _Suddenly, an egg was thrown towards Constance's neck, and the impact caused her to lose her temper and she gasped._

" _Constance!" Nebbercracker cried._

 _The giantess grabbed Nebbercracker's axe and swung it around to attack the boys. The boys continued to play their cruel prank towards her as they threw more eggs and rocks._

" _Sucker," the first kid called._

" _You… vandals!" she shouted._

" _Eat this!" the second said throwing an egg at her shoulder._

" _You hooligans! I'll get you!"_

 _Constance was more provoked from the bullying, as she decided to kill off the kids. She swung her axe over her head to charge towards them. Nebbercracker tried to stop her._

" _Constance, no!" he cried._

 _Nebbercracker grabbed the axe from Constance and tried to pull it out of her hands. However, as he grabbed the axe, he fell backward and landed on the ground, and looked up to see his wife trying to balance herself on the ground from the impact and was losing her footing._

 _She toppled over to the edge of the basement, and grabbed on a lever from a cement mixer to save herself. When she pulled it, she lost her balance and fell down into the basement screaming, with the cement mixer tipping over and poured cement all over Constance, she shattered her spine, as the cement buried her, and died._

* * *

"So I finished the house," Nebbercracker said, finishing the story. "She would've wanted that. She died, but she didn't leave. And that night, that one night of every year… I had to take precautions. I had to. I had to."

I grew emotional to hear the story about the lost of his wife, and now I regret in believing the rumor the older kids talked about him eating his wife. It all made sense why Nebbercracker scared my friends, the other kids, and I and take away our toys. He was only protecting us from his wife, and did not want us to get eaten and face her wrath. Nebbercracker looked back as his wife house glared at us, for learning the truth about her, and he turned to us.

"She attacks anyone who comes near," he said, as his blue eyes widened in fear.

He backed away from us, and instead of releasing his wrath at us, like he did for those past years, he frantically warned us.

"Go," he said firmly, and he walked back to his house. "I'm coming, dear." I was about to leave and heed his warning, and I looked back to see DJ still standing there. Nebbercracker looked back and glared, "Go."

All at the same time, I wanted to prevent him from isolating himself to protect us, but it turns out that it's not going to work out for him, once he really dies, the house will attack more innocent people.

"No, no, no, wait!" DJ cried. He ran up towards the old man to stop him, as the house smiled. I followed him as DJ turned Nebbercracker around to face him. "I can't let you do this, Mr. Nebbercracker. I know that you've been protecting us all these years. But now it's our turn to protect you. Let her go."

"DJ's right, Nebbercracker. If you continue to go down and keep protecting us and the other children from her, it's not going to get any better. If you're gone, then Constance will keep attacking more of us, it's probably best to set her free," I said.

Nebbercracker looked at us hesitantly, and he looked back at Constance as she glared. It seemed that she was not going to accept this, and he looked back at us, to reveal a sad old man trapped in a living nightmare.

"But if I let her go... Then I'll have no one," he said sadly.

"That's not true," DJ said firmly.

"You have us," I said, for the first time gave a small gentle smile to the old man.

DJ held out his hand, and Nebbercracker took his, accepting the true fact. The monster house behind us began to shake as Constance was going berserk. The trees at her sides attached themselves to her roof forming arms/legs. Her tree hands slammed into the earth, making me jump back in fright, and she roared at us.

"Constance, no!" Nebbercracker yelled.

"Run for your life!" I cried.

DJ, Nebbercracker, and I began to run away from the monster house, as it continued to roar at us. The old man grabbed his box of explosives to run with us, along with Jenny and Chowder. The house pulled itself from its' position and began to chase us, with Nebbercracker dropping his box of explosives.

"Come on," Jenny cried.

She pulled Chowder with her, as he looked back in horror and ran with us.

"The house is alive!" he screamed.

Constance in her house form was already transformed into a terrifying monster, and it continued to chase us through the neighborhood, and crushed a lamppost. My heart began to pound faster in my chest, turning my blood hot. We looked back as the Monster House knocked down a power lines, crushing a car and electrocuted it blocking our path.

We all looked back, thinking of a way to escape, as Constance came charging towards us.

"This way. This way. Come on," DJ cried.

We went towards the fence that led to an alleyway, and DJ opened the gate leading us in.

"You guys, come on!" he cried.

Jenny, Nebbercracker, and I followed him, as Chowder followed behind me. I looked back to see Chowder closing the gate and locking it. The hairs at the back of my neck stood up, as Constance came closer. I was about the rush back to get him, but I was pulled back from behind and I looked back to see Nebbercracker grabbing me by the hand. He pulled me back, and pushed me to the other direction.

"Run girl!" he shouted.

I did so, and I looked back to see him coming up to Chowder and pulled him away from the gate.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to slow the house down."

"Move it, pork chop!"

He kept pushing him towards us, and we kept running as the Monster House continued to chase us through the narrow alleyway. Nebbercracker and Chowder caught up with us, and I continued to speed up as my feet carried me in the air, not even stopping to catch my breath. I suddenly tripped over, landing on the hard pavement and screamed.

"Help!" I cried out.

The others turned around as I struggled to crawl towards them, and I looked back to see the house towering over me. I felt so puny, as I was about to be eaten by a monster. I closed my eyes and allowed God to choose my fate.

I was suddenly grabbed from the front to see Chowder and Nebbercracker pulling me by the hands, and they rested my arms on theirs shoulders and I picked up my running pace with them.

"Come on, come on," DJ cried.

He pushed back a heavy trash bin and it rolled straight towards Constance. It did not stop her, and the dark-haired boy ran, knowing the box won't hold her back. He caught up with Nebbercracker and held his hand and wrist.

"Come on, Mr. Nebbercracker," he urged. "Come on."

Nebbercracker was very old, and he could not run well like us. DJ continued to pull him, and the old man broke free and stopped to catch his breath panting.

"I can't," he said, walking over towards a shed at the corner.

I looked back as Constance continued to charge towards us, destroying everything in her path, and roaring furiously. We all stopped and tried to get Nebbercracker to run with us.

"Mr. Nebbercracker. Hurry," DJ cried as he tried to hold the old man up.

"She's gaining on us!" I cried.

"Go on," Nebbercracker said, pushing DJ forward. "I'll be all right."

"Oh, man," DJ muttered.

I looked back to see the house coming closer to us, as the old man rested himself on the garbage cans. I ran with DJ, Jenny, and Chowder as I looked back to see Constance charging over Nebbercracker. We continued to run for our lives, as adrenaline began pumping throughout my limbs, urging me not to slow down. We sped towards the gate, with DJ leaping over it, as Chowder and Jenny climbed over the walls. I rushed through the gate not bothering to close it behind me.

"What are you waiting for?" DJ cried as Chowder rolled over. "Come on."

We sprinted across the street towards the tall wooden fence of the construction site, we went to from the night before. I looked back to see the Monster House catching up to us, and knocked down a tree. The impact shook my bones and I was pulled in with the others through the construction gate to hide.

I then looked back to see a brick fly in the air, hitting the back of the house. Constance turned to where the direction of the brick was thrown and saw her husband standing underneath the light of a lamppost. She growled angrily towards him.


	12. Final Battle

"You stay away from those children, Constance!" Nebbercracker shouted.

The Monster House growled and began to walk towards the old man in anger, she stopped and roared at her husband. Nebbercracker stood still in fright, as his wife slowly calmed down with her wooden teeth shrinking back.

"Constance," the old man said.

DJ, Jenny, Chowder, and I hid behind the wall, and DJ peered from the gap to watch Nebbercracker confronting the old man.

"Mr. Nebbercracker," DJ whispered fearfully. I looked through to watch the old man slowly come up to his wife, and caressed her front steps.

"Oh, now..." he said, trying to comfort her. "There, there, girl. My sweet. You've been a bad girl, haven't you? You've hurt people."

Constance's golden eyes slowly dimmer as her window eyes turned to sadness. She sighed sadly in regret, knowing that other people do not mean to harm her.

"Oh, Constance. Oh, we've always known this day would come. Haven't we?" he asked.

The Monster House was at her cooling point as they showed the true pain she went through, and she seemed to agree with him.

"I have to make things right. I have to make things right," he said.

Nebbercracker reached into his sling and pulled out a stick with a bunch of dynamite. Constance growled as the roof furrowed, my heart began to pound in my throat, thinking she would go berserk if he was really going to do. I could see by the look in her eyes, that she knew exactly what was coming.

"Constance," Nebbercracker said, trying to calm his house down. "I've always done what's best for you, haven't I? Haven't I, girl?"

Constance slowly relaxed, and was in a position to attack. My friends and I had to think of something if this poor old man was going to be a victim of his house-wife.

"Come on, let's move," DJ whispered.

Jenny and I followed DJ, and pulled Chowder with us, and thought of a new plan to stop the Monster House and save Nebbercracker. We rushed over and noticed the excavator that Chowder messed with last night.

"Chowder? Do you still have the keys?" DJ asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"I have an idea."

* * *

"Oh, Constance," Nebbercracker whispered.

Nebbercracker timidly took a match and strike it against the wooden steps and lit it. The Monster House growled as she saw the match and knew what was coming, as her husband backed up.

"Let this be the right thing to do," he whispered as he slowly placed the match on the wick of the dynamite.

Constance flew into a rage at this betrayal and grabbed Nebbercracker in one of her hands and attempted to eat him. The old man screamed, knowing that his wife is blinded again by anger and was going to hurt him this time.

A loud blaring horn was sounded as the light shone in the dark, Chowder drove the excavator through the fence and charged towards Constance, while Jenny, DJ, and I stood by him screaming in a war cry.

"Get away from Mr. Nebbercracker!" I shouted.

"Leave him alone!" DJ cried.

"Yeah, get your grubby branches off the old man!" Chowder bellowed. "Take that! And that!"

Chowder used the boom to punch through the house, as it turned our attention to us. The part of the porch began to break off from Constance, and she roared in pain, as her tree hand threw Nebbercracker hard on the ground.

"Mr. Nebbercracker!" DJ cried.

He jumped off from the excavator and rushed towards the old man, regaining his senses with a stick of dynamite and a couple of matches. I looked over to watch Nebbercracker sitting up and spoke to the dark-haired boy.

"Oh, kid, come here," the old man said.

He picked up a bundle of dynamite, a couple of matches and held it out to DJ in his good hand.

"Take this," he said.

"What?" DJ exclaimed, shaking his head nervously.

"You have to help me. Please," Nebbercracker said. "I know you can do it."

Without hesitating, DJ eagerly took the dynamite and the matches from the old man.

"Go on. Go. Hurry," the old man urged.

* * *

Jenny and I stood by Chowder as he continued to battle against the monster house. No matter how much we fought against her, she was getting madder and madder.

"She's so mad right now!" I cried.

"How do you know how to drive this thing?" Jenny asked.

"I don't," Chowder said.

"Well, you only learn by doing it!" I added.

He stepped on the brake and hit more levers of the excavator and made more holes into the Monster House as we grabbed its' face. Adrenaline began to pump fiercely in my veins, and dark smoke was billowing out of the chimney as the inside glowed red.

* * *

From the distance, DJ noticed the smoke coming out, and came to realization.

"The chimney," he said. "The chimney leads to the heart."

DJ began to strike a match against the bundle, trying to light it. My friends and I continued to fight against Constance. She then grabbed the box we were in and shook it. I clutched onto the bars as I held on from the hard impact, and Jenny fell off screaming.

"Jenny!" Chowder cried and tried to save her, but the redhead fell down towards the deep drained lake, and my emotions went from jealously to concern. Chowder held onto the gears and continued to fight with Constance.

"No!" I cried.

I looked over to see DJ lighting up the match successfully and was about to lite the wick of the dynamite. The Monster House noticed and she rammed her other tree arm towards DJ, knocking him off and making him fall into the pit and I screamed in horror. I held on tight to Chowder as we continued to fight Constance.

* * *

DJ toppled down the deep lake as dirt was smeared on his face and clothes, and landed on Jenny, wincing in pain. His bones rattled hard from the impact and soon regained himself. He looked up to see the girl on her hands, coughing.

"Jenny. Are you all right?"

DJ crawled towards her and helped her up.

"I'm not sure," she replied and was shook up from the trauma.

DJ grabbed the dynamite with another match, and was more determined to battle the Monster House and noticed the tall crane in the distance. He came up with another idea, to get the dynamite in the chimney. Jenny gasped when she was the boy holding the dynamite.

"DJ, get rid of that thing!"

"I'm working on it."

* * *

Chowder and I continued to battle against Constance, and the excavator was backing up towards the drained lake. My worse fear started to grow, that we'll break our necks and get killed from falling into the drained lake with the excavator. My walkie-talkie buzzed into my jean pocket and I pulled it out, and pressed a button.

"Yes?" I called.

"Chowder, Sally, I need you guys to get the house down under that crane," DJ called. "Think you could do that?"

"I think so," I said shrugging.

"Piece of cake," Chowder said.

He took control of the buttons and switches on the dashboard, letting out a battle cry. Okay, maybe this is a good time for him to act weird. I let out a scream like Tarzan, as I shook my arms in the air like a lunatic. The boom continued to dig into the face of the house and pulled her with us towards the edge of the lake. The house tried to break free and it got madder and madder.

"You think you can just mess with my friends?" Chowder shouted as he roared.

"You think you can mess with innocent people, including my clam Chowder?" I screamed.

Chowder looked over at me and raised his eyebrows. "Did you just call me clam chowder?"

"Well, yeah…" I shrugged.

The house roared, and we got out of our distraction and pulled her towards the edge and the excavator tipped downwards, thrusting Constance with us as the vehicle accelerated down the slope, and the Monster House used her tree arms to slow herself down. The boom lost its' grip on the house and we screamed, toppling down with the vehicle, and I clutched onto Chowder, wanting to die in his arms with him.

The Monster House then grew scared as it tried to save itself and screamed as her tree arms gripped on the slopes. Chowder and I screamed as we rode in the excavator, and feared that the machine is going to explode! The excavator stood upwards and flew over a ditch and came to a stop.

"Mommy!" Chowder cried.

"Grandma!" I cried, wishing my grandparents were here with me.

The Monster House was then shredded to pieces, and broke apart creating a huge dust fog. I immediately ducked alongside Chowder and shook all over. I coughed out the dust, and I turned to the blond boy lying unconscious. Before I could try to wake him up, I heard a voice coming out from Chowder's walkie-talkie.

"Chowder. Sally," I heard DJ speaking, "come in, Chowder. Chowder, buddy? Sally?"

I heard a coughing and looked over to see Chowder sitting up. I gave a huge sigh of relief as the butterflies stopped fluttering in my stomach. He looked over to see the Monster House was no more, and we defeated it! I guess we didn't have to use the dynamite after all.

"Hey, guys. Look who just won? It's me, the screw-up!" Chowder called.

"Yeah! We're super heroes! He's my clam chowder!"

"Way to go, Chowder, you did it!" DJ called as Jenny cheered and clapped her hands in excitement.

I watched as both of them hugged each other, and I smiled for them, I could truly see them as a couple. They then parted, and were both blushing. That's when I knew Jenny and DJ were meant for each other.

I turned around to Chowder, grabbed him by the shirt collar and pulled him in for a kiss. From the moment my lips touched his, I felt fireworks exploding behind my eyes, as a flame was lit. I noticed Chowder flinched for a moment, but he relaxed and took in the kiss.

When we pulled apart, I was blushing with embarrassment thinking he wouldn't accept me. Instead, Chowder just smiled and was filled with ecstasy.

"Hey I kissed a girl!" he called over to the others. "I kissed Sally!"

DJ and Jenny giggled at the moment, and my face was entirely red.

"You have no idea how long I wanted to do that," I said smiling.

"I guess I didn't see that coming," Chowder said. "I love you Sally."

I gasped in surprise. Chowder was in love with me. My heart began to flutter around my chest like a butterfly, breaking out from the cocoon.

"I love you too Chowder!" I cried.

We were in so much joy, that Chowder and I continued to do a victory dance with cheers. I suddenly heard a loud sound behind me, making my hairs stand on my skin. I spun around to see the Monster House repairing itself and I gasped in horror along with Chowder.


	13. Blowing Up the Monster House

"Are you kidding me right now?" I shouted.

"You can't do that," Chowder cried. "That's not fair."

The house rebuilt into a more horrifying monster, with the broken window eyes, a circular body, her tree arms as legs, with the chimney still billowing the smoke. She roared at us, making my skin shiver as color was draining from my face.

"Come on Chowder. We gotta get her to the crane!"

"I'm on it."

Chowder roared as he grabbed the levers and kept driving the excavator backwards as Constance continued to follow us. My heart was starting to beat faster and faster in my chest, as sweat was building in my bangs. I looked over to my left to see DJ and Jenny running towards the tall crane and start to climb it.

"No. Get on the top. Help!" Chowder cried.

I grabbed my walkie-talkie as it buzzed and I placed it in front of us. I gripped onto Chowder's hand into my own, still thinking about our first kiss.

"That's it, Chowder and Sally. Keep her coming," DJ called.

Chowder pulled the cord and blared the loud horn as he screamed. The Monster House kept following us and it chomped its' uneven splintering teeth, trying to bit the excavator. I added in a war cry and I kept shaking my hands at Constance.

"You ain't nothing!" Chowder shouted. "You're a shack! You're an outhouse!"

"You're a bunch of splinters!" I shouted. "Enough to make firewood!"

We continued to swerve the excavator, as the boom swung back and forth. The Monster House grabbed the boom in her teeth and kept her grip firm. She tipped the excavator over, and toppled us out. Chowder grabbed onto the bars, and I fell off almost screaming as I saw sharp poles at the bottom to impale me. Chowder grabbed my hand and pulled me back in.

We got back in and looked to see Constance ripping off the boom from the excavator and tossed it to the side. Chowder and I grew scared of her and flinched back, she then grabbed what was left of the boom and lifted us up in the air. Chowder fell out of the box and gripped onto the bars as he hung for his life. I toppled out and I grabbed Chowder by the feet. I took a quick look in my peripheral vision to see that we were really high up!

The Monster House threw the excavator up in the air, and Chowder and I let go before we could get eaten and landed on the hard ground. My whole skeleton was rocking in pain from the fall and it took me a minute for them to be released from shock. I got over to Chowder and helped him to his feet, and looked up to see Constance chewing up the excavator. Without warning, glass from the windows began to plummet towards us. Chowder threw his arms around me protectively to avoid the glass, and to our luck, it didn't hit us and cracked around us.

Chowder and I slowly backed up, trying to not get the Monster House to notice us. Then was a loud crack, and I looked down to see the blonde stepping on the glass, making a crack. Constance threw her face towards us, as I stared into her broken window eyes.

"Run!" I yelled.

Chowder screamed, and I grabbed him by the hand pulling him with me as we ran for our lives. I felt adrenaline pumping through my legs giving me an extra boost. We kept running towards the crane as I looked up to see DJ and Jenny reaching to the top of the crane and were about to walk across the jib. Not now, I gotta focus on saving our rear ends from a monster!

* * *

DJ and Jenny made it to the top of the crane and the boy opened up the gate towards the jib and looked across. He looked down to see Chowder and Sally running for their lives from Constance and screaming for help. He felt so terrified, about trying to blow up the monster house with the dynamite, and his heart began to pound in his chest. He gasped and backed away. He turned over to Jenny.

"I can't."

"Yes, you can," Jenny smiled and kissed DJ firmly on the lips. "Go."

DJ had a smile growing across his face in pure ecstasy, as warm energy was following through his veins. He crawled across the job thinking happily to him self.

"I kissed a girl," he said smiling. "I kissed a girl on the lips."

DJ kept crawling across the jib and looked down to see the hook hanging at the edge, and knew what he had to do.

* * *

"Guys! Anytime now," Chowder called.

"She's getting closer!" I cried.

The house's fangs dug in front of us, and the blond pulled me out of the way, to avoid getting stabbed. Chowder stopped and turned around to blow a raspberry at Constance; I pulled him with me as we continued to run and scream. The house's plank-like teeth dug in front of us, and we escaped through the gap. My legs were getting exhausted, as blood was pumping harder and harder into my veins.

"Sorry!" Chowder cried as he looked back.

We kept running towards the crane, and screamed our heads off as the Monster House tried to catch us with her jaws as they inched closer and closer to us. I heard Chowder screaming as I got up ahead of him.

"I'm flying!"

I looked back and gasped in horror to see the Monster house lifting Chowder up by his red cape. Constance was gonna eat him, I had to do something!

"Chowder!" I cried. "You put him down!"

I picked up a few nearby rocks and start to throw at Constance, hoping I could save my Chowder.

* * *

DJ and Jenny made it towards the hook of the crane. DJ climbed through the bars of the jib, and his plan was formulating in his mind. Jenny held onto the dynamite with a couple of matches.

"On the count of three, I want you to light the dynamite," DJ instructed.

"Okay, I got it," Jenny said.

* * *

"Chowder, untie your cape!" I screamed.

Chowder untied himself and was released from the grip. He screamed as he fell and landed on the dirt. The Monster House growls as her plank teeth were sharp as knives as she gained closer to the blond boy, backing up.

"Chowder!" I ran over and grabbed him. But my legs shook, and I was trembling in fear as Chowder and I backed away.

* * *

Back on the crane, DJ kept an eye on the Monster House as it got closer and closer to the crane. Jenny was striking the match against the metal to light the wick.

"One," DJ said.

"Come on, come on, come on," Jenny said to herself as she struggled to light the match.

"Two."

"Yes."

Jenny managed to strike the match and lit it against the wick of the dynamite. She slowly handed the dynamite over to DJ as he held onto the hook.

Before DJ could utter three and reach for the dynamite, he pulled a lever and the hook unlatched, causing him to fall and swing with the hook screaming.

"DJ!"

Jenny looked at the dynamite and stood up on her feet, she rushed across the jib to wait for the dark haired boy to swing up.

"Three!"

The redhead threw the dynamite over towards the boy, and he caught it. DJ swung over to the other crane, avoiding Constance's jaws as he swung over to another crane and held on. Chowder and I looked over to watch our friend holding onto the side for a few seconds, he jumped off the crane with the hook and swung as the Monster House tried to grab him, luckily she missed. He swung around and threw the dynamite straight down the chimney as it went deeper into the fire towards the heart.

Chowder and I found our chance to escape and we started to run. Constance stood still as she was in shock. DJ yelled and he swung down and grabbed Chowder, and I held onto his hand as we swung away. I looked back as the Monster House froze for a moment and it exploded in many pieces, as wood and fire was flying all over the place.

DJ, Chowder, and I released the hook and landed in a deep ditch. There was intense heat, the sound exploded my eardrums, my heart was pounding in my chest as adrenaline was flowing, and I began to sweat harder, as I covered my head with my hands.

The heat died down, and I got up, coughing from all the smoke. I heard footsteps and saw Jenny walking up to us. I smiled in relief that she was all right. She held out her hand and I took hers, and she pulled me up.

We looked back to watch the boys get up and were all covered in dirt. DJ climbed himself out of the ditch. Chowder stood there and held out his hands. DJ, Jenny, and I sighed and we helped him out. The fog was very thick, making it difficult for us to see. Jenny coughed, and DJ shushed her. We heard a moaning in the distance and it sounded familiar.

"Do you guys hear something?" DJ asked as he scoured through the fog. "It's over there. Come on."

We walked through the fog and saw Nebbercracker with the spirit of his wife. They slowly danced as firelight rained down slowly around the loving couple. Constance was now at peace and she was finally free. I smiled at the sight, knowing that someday, Nebbercracker will join her in the afterlife.

"Oh, my dear," the old man said.

Constance's spirit smiled gently to him. Her hand parted from his, as they looked lovingly in their eyes. She floated upwards and looked at us and smiled, as her spirit disappeared. Nebbercracker watched as his wife floated up to the sky and vanished, with sadness in his eyes as his good hand stood out extended.

"Goodbye," he said.

Nebbercraker placed his hand to his chest, and fell to his knees. He sobbed on the ground as he picked up the door handle with a piece of wood. It was all he had left to remember his wife, and house. DJ and I came up to him, while Chowder and Jenny stood back. I felt truly sorry for Nebbercracker, and tried to think of a way to comfort him.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Nebbercracker, about your house... And your wife," DJ said. He looked around, and back at the old man, trying to think of the right words. "Your house-wife."

"What he means to say is, we're sorry about Constance," I said.

Nebbercracker looked up with a different expression that did not show anger or sadness. He was silent for a moment as he stared at us.

"Forty-five years," he finally said. "We have been trapped for forty-five years, and now…"

He gripped onto DJ's wrist and I jumped back, thinking the old man was going to attack him. I slowly stopped flinching as he got up and stared at us.

"We're free!"

Nebbercracker shook DJ's arm gently and began to laugh with joy. I could not help but smile with him as he released DJ's arms looking up at the sky.

"We're free! Thank you, friend," Nebbercracker hugged DJ, and I giggled as the boy flinched in surprise, but he smiled and returned the hug.

"Thank you all. We're free," he said.

Chowder, Jenny, and I joined in with DJ and Nebbercacker as we gathered for a group hug. For the first time, I felt a lot more joy from the past five months and I was starting to see the light again. The neighborhood was saved and now Halloween will be safely celebrated. I never felt so happy in my life!


	14. This is Halloween

We later on returned back to where Nebbercracker's house once stood, and the toys, Constance's shrine, and his photographs survived. Nebbercracker planned on collecting his wife's remains and get them cremated and placed in an urn.

Since we didn't have any Halloween candy to give out, we decided to give the toys and various items back to the kids, that Nebbercracker has taken. Many kids were walking around the neighborhood, dressed in costumes and held pumpkin buckets and bags to fill up with candy.

A group of kids formed a long line on the sidewalk, and were already excited to get their old toys back. Everyone was announcing 'trick-or-treat' and 'Happy Halloween' to every house they go.

"Here you go," DJ said, handing over a Frisbee and rocket dart to two kids.

"Wow, thanks," one boy dressed with a box drawn robot said.

His other friends dressed as a mushroom and corndog thanked us, and placed the toys in their baskets and walked off, to enjoy the night.

"Happy Halloween," DJ said and called for the next trick-or-treater. "Next."

Eliza came up dressed in a flower suit, and a large flower was wrapped around her face. She was no longer afraid and noticed that the Monster House was gone. She looked at DJ.

"What happened to Nebbercracker's house?" she asked.

DJ looked back and thought of a way to make the story short, as he turned back to the little girl and said, "It turned into a monster, so I blew it up."

The blonde girl nodded, and shrugged. She smiled and held out her bucket.

"Trick or treat," she said.

DJ turned to us, and we helped pass out toys to the kids.

"We're gonna need a tricycle," he announced.

Nebbercracker placed the wheel back onto Eliza's tricycle and held it up, smiling.

"One tricycle, coming up," he said, handing it over to me.

"Tricycle," I said as I handed it over to Chowder.

"Tricycle," he said as he handed it over to Jenny.

"Tricycle," she said and handed it over to DJ.

"Tricycle," DJ said as he gave the tricycle to the little girl.

"Hello, tricycle. I missed you so much," Eliza said as she got on, and turned to us. "Thank you, mister."

"Goodbye, now," her mom said, holding Eliza's Halloween pail, as her daughter rode the tricycle happily.

"Happy Halloween," DJ said.

A car pulled up and parked in front of the sidewalk. The driver honked the horn, as the lights beamed. We all came up to see who the driver is, and Jenny recognized her immediately.

"Jenny!" the driver called.

"There's my mom," the redhead said to us, and called, "One second."

"Okay."

Jenny turned to us and shrugged. Her green eyes looked down at the ground, as she tried to find the right words for the boys.

"So... We should hang out again," she said. "Soon."

She smiled and hugged both of the boys. DJ and Chowder were filled with estacy as they had a new friend into their group.

"Yeah," they said, grinning.

She parted from the hug, and smiled at us.

"See you," she said waving, and she turned to run to her mom's car.

Chowder, DJ, and I waved to her smiling. Suddenly, my eyes widened, thinking I forgot something. I scolded myself and ran up to Jenny.

"Jenny! Wait!" I called.

The redhead stopped, and turned back to me. I caught up to her to take deep breaths as I panted. I threw my arms around Jenny, and she flinched in surprise. She then relaxed and hugged me back. I separated from the hug and held her hands into my own.

"Jenny, thank you so much for helping us out with this mission." I said smiling to her. "I'm really sorry, that I acted jealous at you. It's just that none of the boys, ever acted like that around me, when we first saw you. I was afraid that I was gonna lose Chowder to you, but right now, I see you and DJ are meant for each other."

"Thanks Sally, and it's okay. I guess I hadn't noticed that you were feeling envy towards me. I admit, I'm not a perfect student but I do my best to think of what I want to do with my life. In truth, you and Chowder are meant for each other, I would never steal Chowder from you."

When she said that, I completely blushed like crazy.

"Well, I guess I understand. From now on, I accept you as my friend," I said. "Right?"

"Right," Jenny agreed and she hugged back me.

I smiled as I took in the hug, and felt very happy. Besides, Chowder, DJ, and my grandparents, Jenny has helped me reach the light, and I felt a new energy giving me the strength to move through my hard life.

We separated and she ran to her car, and got into the passenger side next to her mother.

"Good luck with the puberty," she called.

She closed the car, and I watched as the car drove away, I look forward to hanging out with Jenny again next time. I turned back to the boys and walked back to them as they too watched Jenny leave.

"She grabbed my butt," Chowder said.

"That's nice, Chowder," DJ said, giving a small smile as he patted the blonde boy's shoulder.

"Chowder," I warned as I gave him a dirty look. Chowder looked back at me, and his smile turned to guilt.

"Oh, I'm sorry Sally," he said looking down. "I forgot that you already kissed me, I'm sorry if I called you that name earlier. I was just upset."

"I know Chowder, I'm sorry I slapped you, I was pretty angry that you called me that name, and I thought you were my friend."

"Yeah, I had no excuse to call you that, can you forgive me?"

"Of course, I forgive you Chowder," I said and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He completely blushed all over.

"I'm in Heaven," he said.

DJ chuckled and we turned back to the ruins to see the old man scouring through the remains and held Chowder's basketball.

"Hey, Mr. Nebbercracker. It's time to go," DJ said.

The old man looked at us, and knew he had a lot to do, around his basement.

"You sure you'll be okay?" I asked.

"Oh, you go on," he said. "I've got some work to do."

He tossed the basketball over to Chowder, and he caught it. The blonde boy smiled happily to have his ball back.

"All right. Thanks," he said.

"I'll see you around," Nebbercracker said.

"All right. Bye," Chowder said.

"Bye," DJ added.

"See you later," I said.

We were about to turn around to head back to DJ's house, and then Nebbercracker stopped us, and we turned back.

"Hey," he said, pointing and glaring at us. "Stay off my lawn."

"What?" I gasped as my eyes widened, thinking he was turning back into the grouchy old man. His glare turned into a grin as he laughed.

"I'm just kidding," Nebbercracker said.

"Ha, ha, very funny," I said sarcastically, as a smile crept to my lips. The boys all laughed at my sarcasm and Nebbercracker's joke. We all walked away and were to head home.

"You think he'll be okay?" DJ asked.

"Yeah. He'll be fine," Chowder said. "He'll go on vacation, get some color, maybe he'll meet someone new. This time, maybe a nice beach house."

"Hopefully not possessed by a ghost," I added.

"Oh Sally," Nebbercracker called. I turned around and noticed him holding a familiar toy. "I think this belongs to you."

I gasped in surprise, and my eyes grew moistened. She was the same, china doll with black hair, pale porcelain skin, and painted green eyes, with a simple purple dress.

"Lizzie!" I cried. I gingerly took my doll from the old man and hugged her very tightly in my arms. "Oh Lizzie, I missed you so much!"

I was still focusing on my doll, hugging her, and started to smother her in kisses. When I finished, I looked up to see Nebbercracker and the boys giving me looks.

"What?" I asked, embarrassed. "I haven't seen Lizzie in almost four years."

Nebbercracker chuckled, and the boys all grinned. My face turned red as I shrugged.

"Well, thanks Mr. Nebbercracker," I said smiling. "I'm glad you saved my doll, and I just hope all goes well."

"Yeah, Happy Halloween," he said.

DJ, Chowder, and I turned back again to head home, and I noticed a car pulled up, and my grandparents both emerged. They came up to me and were filled with relief to see me.

"Sally!" they exclaimed.

"Grandma, Grandpa!" I said, looking down in shame, thinking I was going to be grounded for disobeying them.

"Sally, where have you been? We were worried sick. We thought we told you to stay away from…" before my Grandmother could reprimand me further, she stopped and noticed that the monster house was gone. "Nebbercracker's house?"

"Sally, what happened here?" Grandpa asked confused.

I looked at them, shamefully and I tried to speak, but no sound would come out from my mouth.

"Well… I… uh… I don't think you'd believe me and…"

"Is everything okay?" a voice interrupted me.

My friends and I turned back to see Nebbercracker emerging from the basement, where his house once stood. When he looked at us, he froze for a moment, as if he saw a ghost as his jaw dropped.

"Patty?" he said.

I looked back at my grandmother, and her eyes widened too. I noticed that tears were forming in her hazel eyes.

"Horace?" she finally said.

They slowly came up to each other, as if they were long lost friends. Grandma slowly placed her hand on his face, and gave a small smile. Nebbercracker smiled back and he threw his regular arm around my grandmother, as she did the same thing with both of her arms. My eyes widened in shock.

"Oh Horace, I thought I'd never see you again."

"Same here, Patty."

Confused, I came up to my grandmother and Mr. Nebbercracker and looked at them.

"Wait a minute, Grandma, you know Mr. Nebbercracker? Is he your friend?" I asked.

My grandmother parted from the hug and looked at me with a small smile. "Yes, dear. But no, Horace is not my friend, he's my brother."

"What?" I cried.

A wave of shock was spreading throughout my head, like the plague. My legs went heavy, color drained from my face and I fell back in a dead faint on the grass.


	15. Truths Revealed and An Idea

"Sally!" DJ and Chowder cried.

The boys, Patricia, Horace, and Steven came over towards the girl, lying flat on the ground, with her doll nearby. Patricia knelt down by her granddaughter, and placed the girl's legs up for the blood to flow back into her head.

"Is she dead?"

"No Chowder, she fainted!" Steven replied.

"Oh, so she's not dead," DJ said, and his eyes widened. "So wait, Mrs. McGiverns, you and Mr. Nebbercracker are siblings?"

"Why yes, DJ. Horace and I haven't seen each other in forty-five years," Patricia said. "But Horace, what happened to your house and Constance?"

"She's in Heaven now, the kids blew up the house, and we're finally free."

"Oh, I see, I should've known that Sally would attempt to know the truth about you."

Patricia used her hand to fan some air to Sally, and Nebbercracker's eyes widened in surprise.

"Wait Patty, are you saying this girl's your granddaughter?"

"Yes, Horace," Patricia said looking up. "She's been living with us, since our son got divorced, so she and her brother are living with us now."

Nebbercracker's grin grew wider, in surprise and joy, and laughed more. "Well, what do you know? I have a grandniece!"

"Grandniece?" DJ gasped.

"Holy moly, you and Sally are related!" Chowder exclaimed.

Their thoughts were interrupted as they heard the girl moaning on the ground and turned their attention towards her.

My mind was very blank, and I slowly opened my eyes with my vision doubling up. I looked up to see my grandparents, the boys, and Nebbercracker looking down at me. I regained consciousness and moaned.

"Sally? Sally? Are you okay dear?" Grandma asked.

"Yeah, I think so," I said.

"Gave us quite a scare when you fainted," Grandpa said.

"I hope you're okay," Chowder added.

I slowly sat up to take deep breaths and saw Nebbercracker again, and I realized what just happened. I backed away in fear from the old man. I screamed and tried to sit up, but Grandma kept her hands firm on my shoulders.

"Take it easy Sally, you don't want to faint again," she said.

I took deep breaths to calm myself down, allowing my heartbeat go normal, and after regaining enough energy in my head. I slowly sat up, and remembered what happened and what made me faint.

"So wait, you're brother and sister?" I cried.

Grandma nodded. I slowly stood up with DJ and Chowder balancing me and I put my arms around their shoulders.

"If you two are siblings, then that means he's my great uncle?"

"That's right Sally, I can't believe that you're my grandniece!" Nebbercracker smiled even more.

"Oh my gosh." My eyes widened in horror and shock. I remembered the picture of him with the girl and turned to Grandma. "So that young girl in the picture with him was you?"

Grandma and Grandpa's eyes widened in horror, oh crap. Me and my big mouth.

"You were in his house?" Grandma exclaimed.

"Sally Louise McGiverns, you know better than to go inside his house," Grandpa said, reprimanding me.

"No Mr. McGiverns, it was my idea," DJ said. "Yesterday, Chowder, Sally, and I were playing basketball and Chowder's ball got lost on Mr. Nebbercracker's lawn and I tried to get it back. But he came, out and attacked me, Sally tried to help, but she got knocked away and Mr. Nebbercracker lost control and passed out."

"Horace, you tried to attack Sally's friend?" my grandmother exclaimed. "What were you thinking?"

"I'm sorry Patty, I was trying to protect him from Constance and I just lost control of myself and suffered a heart attack," Nebbercracker said looking down in shame. "After my coma, I escaped from the hospital and nearly ran DJ over. I realized that they learned too much, and I had to tell them the truth about Constance. Your granddaughter and her friends helped me out and set my wife free so she can rest."

"Of course," Grandma said.

"Grandma, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disobey you. But I got so scared, I didn't want anything to happen to DJ, I thought Mr. Nebbercracker was gonna kill him," I said, feeling my heartbeat beating faster.

"Please Patty, it wasn't her fault, and I knew that she was a good friend who would never abandon a friend."

"Oh, I guess I understand," Grandma said, taking a deep breath.

"But, Horace, where have you been all those years?" Grandpa asked. "We need to hear the story."

Nebbercracker sighed sadly and said, "I've always knew this day would come when the truth comes out."

"But Mr. Nebbercracker, how come you and my grandmother haven't spoke to each other?" I asked.

"Well, before we could explain that, Patty and I were very close when we were kids, and loved each other very much. Even if she was a little feisty and naggy…"

"Horace," Grandma said glaring at him.

"Oh I'm just kidding," he said chuckling. " She was very kindhearted and didn't judge on other people for their looks. Later on in the 1957, I joined the demolition squad and became friends with Steven. One year later, I introduced my sister to him, and that's where they hit it off."

"So, that's how Grandma met Grandpa, with you," I said.

"Yes, and after two years of dating we finally got married," Grandma said. "Later on Horace introduced us to Constance, and though we were nervous. I didn't mind what she looked like and told her that she was lucky to marry my brother. She was a little suspicious at first when she met me, but I showed kindness and she relaxed. In fact, I was planning on helping Constance how to control her temper, and eat healthy, because I loved her and I was concerned about her health, even if she has her inner beauty."

"Did you hear about what happened to Constance?" DJ asked.

"Yes, and I was truly upset and angry at what happened to Constance, those boys got punished. I told my brother not to finish the house, but Horace however insisted that he finished it, because he wanted to do it for Constance. I was a little mad about his choice to finish up the house, we started to have an argument, demanding him to get Constance's body out to bury her, but he refused to listen to me and wanted to please Constance. Our argument got harsher, and I walked out on him. I felt so guilty for being cruel to my brother and regretted my words as Horace finished the house, and stopped calling me."

"I'm sorry for how I acted Patty, I loved Constance and I finished the house for her, but after she died her spirit went into the house she loved, and attacks anyone who comes near her. If I tried to call you, Constance would growl at me for talking to other people, even if it was my own family."

"But still, you shouldn't have to live through with that," Grandpa said. "Even missed out on our family reunions, and we still thought about you. Hoping you would come back in our lives, Patty stills thinks about you in secret."

"Patty, I know what I did was no excuse, and I regretted the way I had to treat the kids, because I was only protecting them. Can you ever forgive for what I did?" Nebbercracker asked.

Grandma gave a warm smile and placed her frail hand on his check, as her glasses grew moistened from the dew.

"Oh Horace, of course I do, you're my brother and I love you very much, and still do," she took him by the hands. "Come live with us. You can stay with us as long as you like, until you're back on your feet."

"Oh Patty, that's kind of you, but it's not necessary."

My grandmother placed her index finger on his lips with a certain smile.

"Look, Horace, I know you've been through a lot of hard years, but I think it would be good for the two of us to get back together as siblings would. Since Constance is at rest, you still have your family, me, Steve, even our grandchildren to keep you company."

"Okay Patty, thanks, I don't know what I'd do without you," he said.

"Oh shucks," Grandma said blushing.

Chowder, DJ, and I giggled. It looks as though both my grandmother and Mr. Nebbercracker would rekindle their sibling relationship.

"We'll let you and Mr. Nebbercracker catch up Mrs. McGiverns," DJ said. "Chowder, Sally, and I are gonna play basketball, I think my parents are home now."

"But wait!" I exclaimed. "Does this mean I'm grounded? Will you tell my parents?"

"Yes, young lady you are for two weeks," Grandpa said sternly.

I looked down in shame, and heard him chuckling. "Oh I'm just teasing Sally, we won't tell your parents. After all, grandparents don't tell."

"Okay," I said, taking a deep sigh of relief, as a cool rain-washed away all the weight of my shoulders.

"Well, since it's Halloween, we'll let you and friends off for now," Grandma said. "Grandpa, and I will help Horace out, and we'll call someone tonight to cremate Constance's remains."

"Sounds good to me," Nebbercracker smiled. "You kids have fun."

"Thanks," DJ smiled.

"Awesome!" Chowder said. "See you later."

"Bye Grandma, bye Grandpa, see you later, Mr. Nebbercracker…." I stopped for a moment, to think about what to call him. "I mean, Uncle Horace."

Well, this will take a little more time for me to get used to calling his name. Uncle Horace just smiled.

"Have a good time," Grandma said. "Be home by ten."

"Sure thing," I said giving her a hug.

I parted from the hug, taking Lizzie with me. I turned around to catch up with DJ and Chowder. We looked across to see DJ's parents' car pulling into the driveway, as they got home already from the dentist convention. Mrs. Walters was pulling items and Mr. Walters stepped out from the car.

"Hey, DJ, look who's here," Chowder said.

"Yes, I can see that, thank you," DJ said sarcastically.

"No biggie."

"Hey, guys," Mr. Walters said.

"Hey, Dad."

"Hi Mr. Walters," I said.

DJ's mom turned around as she pulled out a giant toothbrush, she gasped in shock. I jumped back in fright, and realized that the boys and I were all covered in dirt. She chuckled looking at us.

"What the heck kind? No, don't tell me. Let me guess." It's um.. uh..." she paused thinking about what we were for Halloween. "Dirty pirates?"

"That's it. Dirty pirates," DJ agreed excitedly.

"Arrgh!" Chowder said pretending his hand was a hook.

"Yo, ho, ho, and a bottle of rum," I said in a deep voice.

"Fun, fun. Oh, you look adorable," Mrs. Walters said, chuckling and she gently stroked DJ's chin, patter Chowder's head, and stroked my cheek. "Have fun tonight."

"Sure thing Mrs. Walters," I said, smiling awkwardly watching as she closed the trunk, and followed her husband inside the house.

We started to play basketball and shot a few hoops. I placed Lizzie near the mailbox to let her watch us. We decided not to go trick-or-treating this year, and think that it wasn't worth it. Chowder bounced his ball a couple of times, and shot it up towards the hoop. The ball landed and stopped, showing the face that was carved from the doorstep. Staring the face, gave me the creeps. We all stared at it, thinking about all the emotions we went through, and that it was time for us to grow up. DJ crossed his arms, and Chowder gave a sigh.

"You know, you were right," Chowder said, placing his hand on DJ. "We're definitely too old for trick-or-treating."

"Oh, yeah. No question about it," DJ agreed.

"Maybe I am too old for dolls too," I added.

We continued to stare in awkward silence, thinking through the day, that we did a lot in order to save the neighborhood, and defeated the Monster House. Maybe we all deserve a little reward for the good deed.

"On the other hand..." DJ said looking at us. "We've been working all night."

The dark haired boy pressed his fingers onto Chowder's plump face that was covered in soot. He filled in the circles around his eyes, and drew a mustache underneath his nose. My eyes widened in surprise, even the blonde boy next to me gasped in excitement.

"Candy time?" Chowder asked.

"Candy time." DJ agreed.

"We're back. Yes!" Chowder exclaimed, jumping excitedly as a happy little kid.

"Woo-hoo!" I exclaimed.

I rushed towards the mailbox, and picked up Lizzie, deciding she should come with me. I didn't care if I was too old for dolls, but what the heck, it'll be for the night!

"Come on Lizzie," I said, carrying her in my arm. "Let's go trick-or-treating!"

We all cheered as Chowder made arm motions as he pretended to gobble up Halloween candy. I ran with them as we went around the neighborhood and gathered as much candy as we could. I looked around to see all the kids enjoying Halloween and it felt as though life is good.

What we didn't notice is that the victims of the Monster House emerged out alive. Bones, the cops, and the dog all emerged from the ruins of the house, and had blank minds. Zee got paired up with Skull, and dumped Bones for good; the cops decided to spend the night inspecting candy, and the charges against us were dropped, and the dog was able to do his business. It seemed that life does turn out for the better in everyone and Halloween can be celebrated.

The fifth of November came around the corner, and it was my birthday, I was officially twelve years old. My grandparents, my brother, Daniel; Great Uncle Horace, and my best friends: Jenny and DJ; and of course, my boyfriend Chowder, celebrated with some birthday cake and opened some great presents, well let's just say that Lizzie was a present from Uncle Horace. Jenny and I became best friends and we started to hang out together, along with DJ and Chowder. Nebbercracker moved in with my grandparents, and exposed his true personality as a good-hearted man, and I developed a close relationship with him. During his time with us, we hosted a small, simple private memorial for Constance as Nebbercracker cremated her bones and placed them in an urn, and we built a little memorial for her in the cemetery, so she can finally rest in peace and we would visit her. I developed a great respect for her, being my great-aunt.

For the first time, I was surrounded by love and joy, as I found the light out from my dark depression. I came to realize that after the battle with the Monster House, Chowder, DJ, Jenny, and I all changed in that moment, too. Not that we stopped trick-or-treating or playing with toys, anything you could see, really. Something changed inside our heads.

An idea.

The idea was that the neighborhood didn't belong to our parents, or grandparents, or the police, or monsters. The idea was the neighborhood and the whole world, belonged to us, and we had to take care of every part of it… Including each other.

THE END!


End file.
